St. Catherine Monastery - Mount Sinai
At the foot of the mountain where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments, lies the monastery of St. Catherine. Early Christian hermits, searching seclusion from worldly affairs, were living in the area since early times of Christendom. After her visit to the impressive site of the Burning Bush, Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, decided in 330 AD to build a chapel at the site. She dedicated it to the Virgin Mary.
When early pilgrims reported about massacres among the monks, Emperor Justinian ordered the construction of a fortress to protect the hermits living in the High Mountains in 527 AD. Above the heavy wooden entrance a wooden frames shows the names of Justinian, his wife Theodora and the architect's Stephanos.
St. Catherine is among the oldest Christian monasteries, and the smallest diocese in the world. The Monks today are Greek Orthodox and of different nationalities. The wealthy monastery has branches in Cairo, Cyprus and Crete.
The Church of Transfiguration is built in the shape of a basilica and divided into the narthex, where a collection of icons is exhibited, the main body of the church, and the apsis with the altar. Among the most impressive art work of 15 centuries are chandeliers each decorated with the egg of an ostrich, and icons, among them the famous iconostasis containing the huge icons of St. John the Baptist, the Holy Virgin, Christ, and St. Catherine. The monastery's treasure is a 6 th century mosaic showing the transfiguration of Christ.
The Chapel of the Burning Bush is the sacred part of the monastery. It once contained the Burning Bush, now replaced outside of the chapel and fenced behind a stone wall. Here every Saturday the monks hold their liturgy. One has to remove his shoes as written in the bible: “…put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standst is holy ground...” (Exodus 3:5)
The Bell Tower houses 9 bells of different sizes and an ancient wooden bell. The wooden bell is used daily, the metal bells are only heard on Sundays and on holidays.
The Mosque was built in 1106 during the era of Caliph Hakim to protect the Monastery from the unpredictable destructive passion of Caliph Hakim. With the raise of Islam in Egypt in 640 the monastery became an isolated Christian outpost in the desert. Tradition has it that a delegation of monks visited the Prophet Muhammad asking for his protection. After his visit to the monastery he granted in a document:” …. I shall be his protector against every enemy… it is not allowed to move … a priest from his religion, nor a hermit from his cell…”
The Icons
Not only survived the diocese in an Islamic environment; it could also preserve the world's richest collection of icons. In 730 Emperor Leo banned and ordered the destruction of all images of worship as it was offending the second of the Ten Commandments. The iconoclasm resulted in vandalism destroying countless icons worldwide. Many Christians died in this controversy. In 787 the Council of Nicea declared that Jesus possessed Two Natures, the divine (and untouchable) and the human, which was legal to depict in artwork.
More than 2000 icons represent a mirror of Christian history, talk about the separation of the Latin and Eastern churches, the period of the iconoclasm and until the 18 th century, when the art of icon painting vanished in St. Catherine.
The Library represents one of the richest collections in the world. Out of 6000 manuscripts, 3000 are ancient, some of them older than the monastery itself. Written in Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Armenian Georgian, Coptic, Polish and Slavic, the manuscripts deal with theological, scientific, liturgical and historical issues. The Codex Syriacus is a 5 th century translation of the Gospels in Syriac and the oldest translation of the bible into any other language. It is the oldest after the theft of the Codex Sinaiticus by von Tischendorff in 1859. The Codex Sinaiticus dates from the 4 th century and shares with the Codex Vaticanus to be the first copies of the Greek Bible, though the Codex Sinaiticus is more complete and less corrupted.
St. Catherine
The legend tells, that the virgin Catherine died a martyr death in the 4 th century. As the daughter of a noble family from Alexandria , she was beautiful and sophisticated in philosophy, poetry, mathematics and languages. Though successful in converteing many to Christianity, she failed to convinced Emperor Maximanus of her faith. Though she astonished him with her knowledge, her rhetoric and logic, he sentenced her to death. Catherine was attached to four wooden wheels rotating into opposite directions. Like a miracle she survived, and finally she was beheaded.
Five centuries later a monk had the vision of angels carrying the celestial body of St. Catherine upon the highest mountain. On top of this mountain, which later was named Mount Catherine , monks found the intact body of St. Catherine emanating sweet smelling myrrh.
Today the skull and her left hand remain in the Church of Transfiguration . Every year on Nov 25 th the monks celebrate the anniversary of her martyrdom, and her relics are carried in a great procession around the Church.
Mt. Moses, also Mt. Horeb or Mount Sinai and known with its Arabic 
name Gebel Mussa, is honored by the three great monotheistic religions. The path of Moses, Sikket Sayydna Mussa, starts in a gentle slope and gets steep on the last bit where it ends at the valley of Elijah . It is believed that God appeared in fire to the prophet. The two chapels are dedicated to Elijah. The final steep climb leads over rocky steps to the summit. Just below the summit in a natural hollow in the granite the imprint of a camel's foot can be made out. Bedouin tradition has it, that here is the place where Prophet Muhammad started his night journey to heaven. The magnificent view from the summit is worthwhile the effort of a 3 hour long climb to the top of Mt. Moses.
3600 steps –skillfully arranged by a monk on penalty - lead to the gate of Stephanos. Here the monk heard the confessions of the pilgrims and gave absolution, so they could ascend the top of the holy mountain.
published October 31, 2007
Source: Angela