The Historic Greek Orthodox St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai

Panoramic presumption of Greek Orthodox Saint Catherine’s Monastery. Credit: patano/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

Saint Catherine’s Monastery, astatine the ft of Mount Sinai, whose aboriginal is successful uncertainty aft a decision by Egypt to adjacent and prehend it, is 1 of the astir important Christian monasteries successful the world.

Not lone is it 1 of the oldest moving Christian monasteries, but it besides houses a room that preserves the second-largest postulation of aboriginal codices and manuscripts successful the world—outnumbered lone by the Vatican Library.

The monastery, which is Orthodox, is simply a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is ineffable to each the 3 Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

It was founded successful the twelvemonth 565 by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, with the oldest grounds of monastic beingness successful the Sinai country dating to 381 to 384.

Along with the Monastery of Saint Anthony, situated crossed the Red Sea successful the godforsaken southbound of Cairo, Saint Catherine’s Monastery is 1 of the oldest successful the full world.

Today, the authoritative sanction of the monastery is the “Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Katherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai.”

It is controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, portion of the wider Greek Orthodox Church. It contains the world’s oldest continually operating library.

Saint Catherine’s Monastery is surrounded by a monolithic granite wall—2.5 meters (8.2 feet) heavy and 11 meters (36 feet) high. It has successfully kept enemies distant since it has ne'er been invaded oregon destroyed for astir 15 centuries, a occurrence successful the often war-torn Middle East.

History

A Spanish pistillate named Egeria, who traveled to the Holy Land and Mount Sinai astir 381 to 384, had recorded the beingness of monastic beingness successful the Mount Sinai area.

Saint Catherine’s Monastery was built by the bid of Emperor Justinian I, who reigned from 527 to 565.

It encloses the Chapel of the Burning Bush, which itself was constructed by the bid of Helen, the parent of Emperor Constantine the Great, astatine the precise tract wherever Moses is expected to person seen the burning bush.

There is simply a surviving bush successful the monastery’s grounds, purportedly with roots from the aforesaid bush Moses saw.

The sanction derives from Catherine of Alexandria, a Christian martyr who was initially sentenced to decease connected the wheel, according to legend.

However, erstwhile the gruesome torture failed to termination her, she was beheaded. It was said that astatine her execution, a milk-like liquid ran down her cervix alternatively of blood.

According to tradition, angels took her remains to Mount Sinai. Sometime astir the twelvemonth 800, monks from the Sinai Monastery recovered her remains.

By the 7th century, the monastery was successful a sedate crisis, chiefly owed to the Arab conquest of the area. According to a source, by the twelvemonth 808, the fig of monks successful the monastery had been reduced to thirty, and Christian beingness successful the Sinai country had vanished.

The Ashtiname of Muhammad granting extortion to Saint Catherine’s Monastery connected Mount Sinai. Public Domain

However, the monastery itself did not vanish. According to tradition, the Fathers of the Monastery requested the extortion of Muhammad himself, who saw the Christians arsenic brothers successful faith.

Mohammed accepted the monastery’s petition for immunity and signed the papers known arsenic the Ashtiname of Muhammad, instructing his followers to support the monks of Saint Catherine’s.

The Library of Saint Catherine’s Monastery connected Mount Sinai

The monastery’s room preserves a veritable treasure of aboriginal codices and manuscripts, a postulation that is 2nd largest to the Vatican Library.

It contains Greek, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Georgian, Syriac, and Udi texts of immeasurable value. There is grounds that manuscripts were produced successful the Sinai successful the 7th century.

The earliest Sinai manuscripts were applicable texts, either to beryllium utilized successful spiritual services oregon to animate the monks who lived successful the area.

Writing materials for the manuscripts were brought to Sinai with large difficulty. The deterioration of the texts done usage was constricted by the adust and unchangeable climate, and the utmost isolation of the monastery protected it from destruction.

Manuscripts successful eleven languages adorn the shelves of the library, with the texts being predominantly Greek. Important collections successful Arabic, Syriac, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Georgian, and Slavonic are besides preserved astatine the Saint Catherine’s Monastery Library.

The Sinai manuscripts are indispensable for the survey of the scriptures. There are also  manuscripts of classical Greek texts, particularly of important aesculapian books.

Some of the Sinai manuscripts are splendid works of creation successful and of themselves, with gilded letters and superb illuminations, created successful Constantinople successful the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries, erstwhile the metropolis was astatine its tallness arsenic the halfway of civilization and Christian faith.

Syriac sinaiticus. Part of Matthew Gospel written successful Syriac astir the 4th century. Public Domain

Most important amongst the manuscripts are the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the Christian Bible successful Greek, including the oldest implicit transcript of the New Testament.

Another priceless manuscript is the Codex Syriacus, an past transcript of the Gospels successful the Syriac language, besides from the 4th century.

The Sinai palimpsests

The oldest manuscripts were written connected parchment made from carnal skins that were stretched and smoothed, which is simply a highly specialized and costly craft.

If a scribe needed to constitute a substance but determination was nary parchment available, helium could instrumentality a manuscript that was considered little important and erase the text, penning the caller substance implicit the old.

This double-written benignant of enactment is what is known arsenic a palimpsest. The Sinai was rather isolated from the 7th to the 11th centuries, truthful the reuse of parchment was often the lone mode to make a caller manuscript.

Faint traces of the archetypal texts often survived beneath the aboriginal texts, however. In galore cases, the archetypal substance is of greater involvement to scholars today. So far, determination person been 160 palimpsests recovered successful Saint Catherine’s Monastery Library.

In the past fewer years, a method called multi-spectral imaging makes the underlying publication connected a parchment wide and legible.

It is simply a analyzable process which includes taking images successful red, green, and bluish airy and merging them with machine bundle to make high-quality colour pictures. Such exertion is conscionable 1 means by which we tin proceed to marvel astatine the galore treasures of the monastery connected Mount Sinai.