Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai Greek:Ιερά Αυτόνομος Βασιλική Μονή Αγίας Αικατερίνης του Αγίου και Θεοβαδίστου Όρους Σινά
Other names
Monastery of Saint Katherine Moni tis Ayas Ekaterinis
Saint Catherine's Monastery (Arabic:دير القدّيسة كاترينDayr al-Qiddīsa Katrīn,Greek:Ιερά Μονή Αγίας Αικατερίνης Όρους Σινά,romanized: Iërá Moní Ayías Ekaterínis Órus Siná[a]), officially theSacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, is aChristian monastery located in theSinai Peninsula ofEgypt. Located at the foot ofMount Sinai, it was built between 548 and 565, and is the world's oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery.[1][2][3]
The monastery was built around the location of what is traditionally considered to be the place of theburning bush seen by theHebrew prophetMoses.[4][13] Saint Catherine's monastery also encloses the "Well of Moses", where Moses is said to have met his future wife,Zipporah.[4] The well is still today one of the monastery's main sources of water. The site is considered sacred by the three majorAbrahamic religions:Judaism,Christianity, andIslam.[7][14]
The monastery was built by order of theByzantine emperorJustinian I (reigned 527–565), enclosing the Chapel of the Burning Bush (also known as "Saint Helen's Chapel") ordered to be built byEmpress ConsortHelena, mother of Constantine I, at the site whereMoses is supposed to have seen theburning bush.[5] The bush on the grounds is said to be the one seen by Moses.[6] Structurally the monastery'sking post truss is the oldest known surviving rooftruss in the world.[17]
1899 map of the monastery surroundings
2011 photo from the north of the monastery, facing southwards
From the time of theFirst Crusade, the presence of Crusaders in the Sinai until 1270 spurred the interest of European Christians. It increased the number of intrepid pilgrims who visited the monastery. Its dependencies in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Crete, Cyprus and Constantinople supported the monastery. Throughout the Middle Ages, the monastery had a multiethnic profile, with monks of Arab, Greek, Syrian, Slavonic and Georgian origin. However, in the Ottoman period, the monastic community became almost exclusively Greek Orthodox, possibly due to the decline and depopulation ofTransjordanian Christian towns. From the 1480s onwards,Wallachian princes began sending alms to the monastery.[18]
Amosque was created by converting an existing chapel during theFatimid Caliphate (909–1171), which was in regular use until the era of theMamluk Sultanate in the 13th century and is still in use today on special occasions. During theOttoman Empire, the mosque was in desolate condition; it was restored in the early 20th century.[19]
During the seventh century, the isolated Christiananchorites of the Sinai were eliminated: only the fortified monastery remained. The monastery is surrounded by the massive fortifications that have preserved it. Until the twentieth century, access was through a door high in the outer walls.
Dominican theologianFelix Fabri visited the monastery in the 15th century and provided a detailed account. He also described the monastery's gardens, noting the presence of "tall fruit trees, salad herbs, grass, and grain," and "more than three thousandolive trees, manyfig-trees andpomegranates, and a store ofalmonds and other fruits." The olives were used to produce oil for lighting lamps and as a relish in the kitchen.[25]
The monastery prospered for most of the Mamluk Sultanate, but as the Sultanate declined, it went through a crisis. While there had been several hundred monks in the mid-14th century, a hundred years later, there were only several dozen.Bedouins began harassing the community, robbing their property in the Christian coastal village ofel-Tor. In 1505, the monastery was captured and sacked. Although theMamluk Sultanate demanded that the property be returned to the monks, they were unable to subdue theBedouins and maintain order. The German explorerMartin von Baumgarten visited the monastery in 1507 and noticed its decline.[18]
On April 18, 2017, an attack by theIslamic State – Sinai Province at a checkpoint near the monastery killed one policeman and injured three police officers.[26]
In May 1844 and February 1859,Constantin von Tischendorf visited the monastery for research and discovered theCodex Sinaiticus, dating from the 4th century, at the time the oldest almost completely preserved manuscript of the Bible. The finding from 1859 left the monastery forImperial Russia in circumstances that had been long disputed. But in 2003 Russian scholars discovered the donation act for the manuscript signed by the Council of Cairo Metochion and Archbishop Callistratus on 13 November 1869. The monastery received 9000 rubles as a gift from TsarAlexander II of Russia.[31] The Codex was sold by Stalin in 1933 to the British Museum and is now in theBritish Library, London, where it is on public display. Prior to September 1, 2009, a previously unseen fragment of Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in the monastery's library,[32][33] as well as among the New Finds of 1975.[34][11] On other visits (1855, 1857)Constantin von Tischendorf also amassed their more valuable manuscripts (Greek,Christian Palestinian Aramaic,Georgian,Syriac) and took them with him to St. Petersburg and Leipzig, where they are stored today.[35][36][37][38][39][40][41]
In February 1892, Agnes S. Lewis discovered an earlypalimpsest manuscript of theGospel in St Catherine Monastery's library that became known as theSyriac Sinaiticus and it remains in the monastery's possession. The text was deciphered byFrancis Crawford Burkitt andRobert Lubbock Bensly.[42] The twinsAgnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson returned in 1893 with the Cambridge team of the two scholars that included their wives, and alsoJ. Rendel Harris to photograph and transcribe the manuscript in its entirety, as well as to prepare the first catalogues of the Syriac and Arabic manuscripts.[43][44][45] Among the new finds two additional palimpsest manuscripts came to light containing additional passages of theOld Syriac Gospels.[46]
The Monastery also has a copy of theAshtiname of Muhammad, in whichMuhammad is claimed to have bestowed his protection upon the monastery.[47]
Additionally, the monastery houses a copy of Mok'c'evay K'art'lisay, a collection of supplementary books ofThe Georgian Chronicles dating to the 9th century.[48]
The most important manuscripts have since been filmed or digitized and are therefore accessible to scholars. With planning assistance from Ligatus, a research center of theUniversity of the Arts London, the library was extensively renovated, reopening at the end of 2017.[49][50][11]
Since 2011, a team of imaging scientists[51][11] and experienced scholars in the decipherment of palimpsest manuscripts[52][11] from the U.S. and Europe have photographed, digitized, and studied the library's collection of palimpsests during the international Sinai palimpsests project.[53][11][5][54]
Palimpsests are notable for having been reused one or more times over the centuries. Since parchment was expensive and time-consuming to produce, monks would erase texts with orange juice or scrape them off and write over them.[55][11] Though the original texts were once assumed to be lost,[56] imaging scientists used narrowbandmultispectral imaging techniques and technologies to reveal features that were difficult to see with the human eye, including ink residues and small grooves in the parchment.[5][28] These images have subsequently been digitized and are now freely available for research at theUCLA Library for scholarly use.[11]
As of June 2018, over 160 palimpsests have been identified, with over 6,800 pages of texts recovered.[11] The newer finds were discovered in a secluded storage area of the St George Tower in 1975.[57][58][59][60][61][62] Highlights include "108 pages of previously unknown Greek poems and the oldest-known recipe attributed to the Greek physicianHippocrates;" additional folios for the transmission of the Old Syriac Gospels;[46] two unattested witnesses of an early Christian apocryphal text theDormition of Mary (Transitus Mariae) of which most of the Greek text is lost;[63] a previously unknown martyrdom of Patriklos ofCaesarea Maritima (Israel), one of the eleven followers ofPamphilus of Caesarea; some of the earliest known Georgian manuscripts;[64] as well as insight into dead languages such as the previously hardly attestedCaucasian Albanian[65][66] andChristian Palestinian Aramaic, the local dialect of the early Byzantine period, with many unparalleled text witnesses.[11]
The Saint Catherine Foundation partnered with the Ligatus Research Centre at London’s University of the Arts to order the creation of steel boxes for the storage and transportation of rare manuscripts contained within the library at St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai.[67] The objective of the Saint Catherine Foundation is to house 2,187 parchment manuscripts in individual boxes made from stainless steel. These are determined to provide the best protection against the desert environment, natural disasters such as earthquakes, and erosion from age.[68]
Stainless steel was recommended over wooden boxes due to the potential of acidic gasses being released inside a sealed box, damaging any pigments in the miniatures that are pH sensitive. Stainless steel boxes are resistant to insect attack while wooden boxes are not. Wood boxes tend to offer more insulation against heat penetration in case of a fire but are flammable whereas stainless steel is fireproof.[69] Each case utilizes an oxygen starvation system allowing for greater protection against fire damage.[67]
Each box is created from a 304 grade stainless steel sheet, cut from an Amada guillotine, and formed by a CNC punch press. Corner seams are hand welded and polished with precision. The inside of each steel box is lined with a polyester foam called Plastazote. Each manuscript is wrapped in acid-free card stock and placed with its spine opposite to the side with the handle. Pressure of the weight of the book is borne by the spine should the box be carried by the handle.[69]
The complex houses irreplaceable works of art: mosaics, the best collection of earlyicons in the world, many inencaustic, as well as liturgical objects, chalices and reliquaries, and church buildings. The large icon collection begins with a few dating to the 5th (possibly) and 6th centuries, which are unique survivals; the monastery having been untouched byByzantine iconoclasm, and never sacked. The oldest icon on anOld Testament theme is also preserved there. A project to catalogue the collections has been ongoing since the 1960s. The monastery was an important centre for the development of the hybrid style ofCrusader art, and retains over 120icons created in the style, by far the largest collection in existence. Many were evidently created by Latins, probably monks, based in or around the monastery in the 13th century.[70]
The French novelistPierre Loti describes the monastery and its treasures extensively inLe désert, his 1895 account of a journey on camelback through the Sinai desert.[71]
^Sebastian P. Brock, Two Hitherto Unattested Passages of the Old Syriac Gospels in Palimpsests from St Catherie's Monastery, Sinai, Δελτίο Βιβλικῶν Μελετῶν 31A, 2016, pp. 7–18.
^The official Website describes the Church as "διοικητικά "αδούλωτος, ασύδοτος, ακαταπάτητος, πάντη και παντός ελευθέρα, αυτοκέφαλος" or "administratively 'free, loose, untresspassable, free from anyone at any time, autocephalous'" (see link below)
^Weitzmann, Kurt, in: Galey, John;Sinai and the Monastery of St. Catherine, p. 14, Doubleday, New York (1980)ISBN0-385-17110-2
^Ware, Kallistos (Timothy) (1964)."Part I: History".The Orthodox Church. Penguin Books. Retrieved2007-07-14. UnderIntroduction Bishop Kallistos says that Sinai is "autocephalous"; underThe twentieth century, Greeks and Arabs he states that "There is some disagreement about whether the monastery should be termed an 'autocephalous' or merely an 'autonomous' Church."
^Jost Gippert, The Creation of the Caucasian Alphabets as Phenomenon of Cultural History, inReferate des Internationalen Symposiums (Wien, 1.-4. Dezember 2005), ed. by Werner Seibt, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, pp. 39–50, Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2011.
^Bo Isaksson, "The Monastery of St. Catherine and the New Finds", inBuilt on Solid Rock: Studies in Honour of Professor Ebbe Egede Knudsen on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday April 11th 1997, edited by Elie Wardini, pp. 128–140, Oslo: Novus forlag, 1997.
^David C. Parker (2010),CODEX SINAITICUS: The Story of the World's Oldest Bible. London. British Library, p. 18.ISBN9780712358033
^M. F. Brosset (1858), Note sur un manuscrit géorgien de la Bibliothèque Impériale publique et provenant de M. Tischendorf,Mélanges Asiatiques 3, pp. 264–280.
^N. Pigoulewsky (1934), Fragments syro-palestiniens des Psaumes CXXIII-IV,Revue Biblique 43, pp. 519–527.
^N. Pigoulewski (1937), Manuscrits syriaques bibliques de Léningrad,Revue Biblique 46, pp. 83–92; N. Pigoulewski, Manuscrits syriaques bibliques de Léningrad (suite),Revue Biblique 46, 1937, pp. 225–230; 556–562.
^Julius Assfalg (1963),Georgische Handschriften (= Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, III) (Wiesbaden); Julius Assfalg (1965),Syrische Handschriften (= Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, V) (Wiesbaden).
^Sebastian P. Brock (2012), Sinai: a Meeting Point of Georgian with Syriac and Christian Palestinian Aramaic, in The Caucasus between East & West (Tbilisi), pp. 482–494.
^Grigory Kessel (2016), Membra Disjecta Sinaitica I: A Reconstitution of the Syriac Galen Palimpsest, in André Binggili, et al. (eds.),Manuscripta Graeca et Orientalia: Mélanges monastiques et patristiques en l'honneur de Paul Géhin (Louvain: Peeters), pp. 469–498.
^Paul Géhin (2017), Les manuscrits syriaques de parchemin du Sinaï et leur membra disjecta, CSCO 665 / Subsidia 136 (Louvain: Peeters).
^Gibson, Margaret Dunlop (1893).How the Codex was Found. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes. pp. 36–38.
^Gibson, Margaret Dunlop (1893).How the Codex was Found. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes. pp. 60–67.
^Agnes Smith Lewis (1894),Catalogue of the Syriac MSS. in the Convent of S. Catharine on Mount Sinai, Studia Sinaitica, I (London: C. J. Clay and Sons).
^Margaret Dunlop Gibson (1894),Catalogue of the Arabic mss. in the Convent of Saint Catharine on Mount Sinai. Studia Sinaitica, III (London: C. J. Clay and Sons).
^abSebastian P. Brock, Two Hitherto Unattested Passages of the Old Syriac Gospels in Palimpsests from St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai,Δελτίο βιβλικῶν Μελετῶν 31, 2016, pp. 7–18.
^Kavtaradze, Giorgi (2001). "The Georgian Chronicles and the Raison D'ètre of the Iberian Kingdom".Journal of Historical Geography of the Ancient World.
^Keith Knox (Chief Science Advisor, EMEL, USA); Roger Easton (Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester, New York, USA); William Christens-Barry (Chief Scientist, Equipoise Imaging, LCC, Maryland, USA); David Kelbe (Centre for Space Science Technology, Alexandra, New Zealand)
^Zaza Aleksidze (Tbilisi, Georgia); André Binggeli (Paris, France); Sebastian Brock (Oxford, UK); Michelle Brown (London, UK); Guglielmo Cavallo (Rome, Italy); Steve Delamarter (Portland, Oregon, USA); Alain J. Desreumaux (Paris, France); David Ganz (Cambridge, UK); Paul Géhin (Paris, France); Jost Gippert (Frankfurt, Germany); Sidney Griffeth (Washington DC, USA); Getachew Haile (Minnesota; New York, USA); Dieter Harlfinger (Hamburg, Germany); Hikmat Kashouh (Metn, Lebanon); Vasilios Katsaros (Thessaloniki, Greece); Grigory Kessel (Vienna, Austria); Daniela Mairhofer (Princeton, New Jersey, USA); Heinz Miklas (Vienna, Austria); Christa Müller-Kessler (University of Jena, Germany); Panayotis Nicolopoulos (Athens, Greece); Pasquale Orsini (Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Central Institute for Archives, Italy); Bernard Outtier (Paris, France); Claudia Rapp (Vienna, Austria); Giulia Rossetto (Vienna, Austria); Alexander Treiger (Nova Scotia, Canada); Agammenon Tselikas (Athens, Greece); Nigel Wilson (Oxford, UK).
^The project's original heads were the professor of Byzantine studiesClaudia Rapp of theUniversity of Vienna and Michael Phelps of the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (EMEL), Los Angeles, California.
^Reviel Netz and William Noel (2008),The Archimedes Codex: Revealing the Secrets of the World's Greatest Palimpsest (London, UK: Phoenix), pp. 120–124.
^Ioannis C. Tarnanidis (1988),The Slavonic Manuscripts Discovered in 1975 at St Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai (Thessaloniki).
^Sebastian P. Brock (1995),Catalogue of the Syriac Fragments (New Finds) in the Library of the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai (Athens).
^Panayotis G. Nicolopoulos (1999),The New Finds of Sinai. Holy Monastery and Archdiocese of Sinai (Athens).
^Zaza Alekzidse, M. Shanidze, L. Khevsuriani, M. Kavtaria (2005),The New Finds of Sinai. Catalogue of Georgian Manuscripts Discovered in 1975 at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai (Athens).
^Philothee du Sinaï (2008),Nouveaux manuscrits syriaques du Sinaï (Athens).
^Christa Müller-Kessler, Three Early Witnesses of the «Dormition of Mary» in Christian Palestinian Aramaic. Palimpsests from the Cairo Genizah (Taylor-Schechter Collection) and the New Finds in St Catherine's Monastery,Apocrypha 29, 2018, pp. 69–95.
^Aleksidze, Nikoloz (2018).Georgia: A Cultural Journey through the Wardrop Collection. Oxford: Bodleian Library. pp. 40–41.ISBN9781851244959.
^Zaza Alekzidse and Jean-Pierre Mahé, "Découverte d'un texte albanien: une langue ancienne du Caucase retrouvée",Comptes rendus des séances l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 141:2 (1997), pp. 512–532.
^Zaza Aleksidze and Jean-Pierre Mahé, "Le déchiffrement de l'écriture des Albaniens du Caucase",Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 145:3 (2001), pp. 1239–1257.
Oriana Baddeley, Earleen Brunner (1996).The Monastery of St Catherine. Saint Catherine Foundation. pp. 120 pages with 79 colour illustrations.ISBN978-0-9528063-0-1.
Böttrich, Christfried (2011).Der Jahrhundertfund. Entdeckung und Geschichte des Codex Sinaiticus (The Discovery of the Century. Discovery and history of Codex Sinaiticus). Leipzig:Evangelische Verlagsanstalt.ISBN978-3-374-02586-2.
James Hamilton Charlesworth,The New Discoveries in St. Catherine's Monastery (= American Schools of Oriental Research Monograph 3) Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1981.ISBN0-89757-403-6
Alessandro Falcetta (2018).A Biography of James Rendel Harris 1852–1941: The Daily Discoveries of a Bible Scholar and Manuscript Hunter. London, UK: T&T Clark.ISBN9780567684776
Forsyth, G. H.; Weitzmann, K. (1973).The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai – The Church and Fortress of Justinian: Plates. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN0-472-33000-4.
Paul Géhin (2017).Les manuscrits syriaques de parchemin du Sinaï et leur membra disjecta. CSCO 665 / Subsidia 136. Louvain: Peeters.ISBN978-90-429-3501-3
Margaret Dunlop Gibson (1893).How the Codex was Found. A Narrative of Two Visits to Sinai from Mrs. Lewis's Journals. 1892–1893. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes.
Dieter Harlfinger, Diether R. Reinsch, and Joseph A. M. Sonderkamp in Zusammenarbeit mit Giancarlo Prato:Specimina Sinaitica: Die datierten griechischen Handschriften des Katharinen-Klosters auf dem Berge Sinai 9. bis 12. Jahrhundert, Berlin: Reimer 1983.ISBN3496007435
Agnes Smith Lewis (1898).In the Shadow of Sinai. A Story travel and Research from 1895 to 1897. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes.
Panayotis G. Nicolopoulos (1999),The New Finds. Holy Monastery and Archdiocese of Sinai (Athens).ISBN9608598427
David C. Parker (2010).CODEX SINAITICUS: The Story of the World's Oldest Bible. London. British Library.ISBN9780712358033
Porter, Stanley E. (2015).Constantine Tischendorf. The Life and Work of a 19th Century Bible Hunter. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark.ISBN978-0-5676-5803-6.
Schick, Alexander (2015).Tischendorf und die älteste Bibel der Welt – Die Entdeckung des CODEX SINAITICUS im Katharinenkloster [Tischendorf and the oldest Bible in the world. The discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus in St. Catherine's Monastery]. Muldenhammer: Jota.ISBN978-3-935707-83-1. Biography cause of the anniversary of the 200th birthday of Tischendorf with many unpublished documents from his estate. These provide insight into previously unknown details of the discoveries and the reasons behind the donation of the manuscript. Recent research on Tischendorf and the Codex Sinaiticus and its significance for New Testament Textual Research.
Soskice, Janet (1991).Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels. London: Vintage.ISBN978-1-4000-3474-1.
Sotiriou, G. and M. (1956–1958).Icones du Mont Sinaï. 2 vols (plates and texts). Collection de L'Institut francais d'Athènes 100 and 102. Athens.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Elena Ene D-Vasilescu, "The Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai and the Romanians",Revue des Études Sud-Est Européennes [Journal of South-East European studies],XLVII, 1–4, 2009, pp. 75–87
Weitzmann, K. (1976).The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai: The Icons, Volume I: From the Sixth to the Tenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Weitzmann, K.; Galavaris, G. (1991).The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. The Illuminated Greek Manuscripts, Volume I. From the Ninth to the Twelfth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN0-691-03602-0.
Pope Gregory X's Privilege for the Holy Monastery of St Catherine of Sinai (24 September 1274):Engineering Historical Memory. Interactive scholarly edition, Diplomatics and Historical Commentary, Deep zoom, English translation, multimodal resources mashup (publications, images, videos).
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