Background
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| St. Catherine's Monastery, Eygpt |
Ascetic monasticism in remote areas prevailed in the
early Christian church and resulted in the establishment of
monastic communities in remote places.
St Catherine's Monastery
is one of the earliest of these, and the oldest to have survived
intact, having been used for its initial function without interruption
since the 6th century. In the early 4th century,
St. Helena, mother of
Constantine I, the Great, built the
Chapel of the Burning Bush at the site where Moses is supposed to have seen the
Miracle of the Burning Bush.
The Orthodox Monastery of St Catherine stands at the foot of
Mount Horeb where,
the Old Testament records,
Moses received the Tablets of the Law (Ten Commandments).
The mountain is known and revered by
Muslims as
Jebel Musa. The entire area is sacred to
three world religions:
Christianity, Islam and Judaism. ,
St Catherine's Monastery founded in the
6th century is the
oldest Christian monastery still in use for its initial function.
The Legend
The monastery is associated with
St. Catherine of Alexandria, who was a
Christian Martyr. Originally sentenced to die on the wheel, she didn’t die and was beheaded instead. According to legend,
St. Catherine’s body was carried to the site of the monastery by
angels. A Sinai monk once had a vision of her body at the top of a nearby mountain named
Mount Catherine which is the highest summit in
Sinai, where her remains were discovered. It’s said that
monks found her remains in 800 AD.
The Monastery
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| The Burning Bush in St Catherine's |
The architecture of
St Catherine's Monastery,
the artistic treasures that it houses, and its domestic integration
into a rugged landscape combine to make it an outstanding example of
human creative genius. It demonstrates an intimate relationship between
natural grandeur and
spiritual commitment. Its walls and buildings of great significance to studies of
Byzantine architecture and the Monastery houses outstanding collections of early
Christian manuscripts and icons.
The rugged mountainous landscape, containing numerous archaeological
and religious sites and monuments, forms a perfect backdrop to
the Monastery.
St. Catherine's is also a formidable
fortification, with
granite walls 40 to 200 feet tall, surrounded by gardens and cypresses. Prior to probably the 20th century, the only entrance to
St. Catherine's
was a small door 30 feet high, where provisions and people where lifted
with a system of pulleys, and where food was often lowered to nomads.
It is a impressive natural setting for
priceless works of art, including a
wonderful Byzantine mosaic dating back to the 6th century,
Arab
mosaics, Greek and Russian icons, Western oil paintings, paintings on
wax, fine sacerdotal ornaments, marbles, enamels, chalices, reliquaries, including one donated by
Czar Alexander II in the 19th century, and another by
Empress Catherine of Russia in the 17th century. But of perhaps even greater significance is that it has
the second largest collection of illuminated manuscripts after Vatican. The collection consists of some
3,500 volumes in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Slavic, Syriac, Georgian and other languages. In 1844,
A German Scholar visiting the library discovered and then arguably stole
The Codex Sinaiticus, an extremely important
4th century version of the Bible that now rests in the
British Museum in London. The Monastery even has a small 10th or 11th century
Fatimid Mosque which was probably built to appease the Islamic authorities of the time. There is also a small chapel
“The Chapel of St. Triphone”, also known as
”The Skull House”, which houses the skulls of deceased monks.
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