Saint Catherine's Monastery

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Saint Catherine's Monastery
Saint Catherine Sinai.jpg
The monastery, with Willow Peak (traditionally considered Mount Horeb) in the background
Monastery information
OrderChurch of Sinai
DenominationEastern Orthodox Church
EstablishedAD 565
People
Founder(s)Justinian I
Site
LocationSaint Catherine, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt
Coordinates28°33′20″N 33°58′34″E / 28.55556°N 33.97611°E / 28.55556; 33.97611Coordinates: 28°33′20″N 33°58′34″E / 28.55556°N 33.97611°E / 28.55556; 33.97611
Websitewww.sinaimonastery.com
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official nameSaint Catherine Area
TypeCultural
Criteriai, iii, iv, vi
Designated2002 (26th session)
Reference no.954
State PartyEgypt
RegionArab States

Saint Catherine's Monastery (Arabic: دير القدّيسة كاترين‎; Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai (Greek: Ιερά Μονή του Θεοβαδίστου Όρους Σινά), is an Eastern Orthodox monastery located on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai, near the town of Saint Catherine, Egypt. The monastery is named after Catherine of Alexandria.[1][2]

The monastery is controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[3] The Saint Catherine monastery is located in the shadow of a group of three mountains; Ras Sufsafeh (possibly "Mount Horeb" c.1 km west), Jebel Arrenziyeb and Jebel Musa, the "Biblical Mount Sinai" (peak c.2 km south).[4]

Built between 548 and 565, the monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world.[5][6] The site contains the world's oldest continually operating library,[7] possessing many unique books such as the Codex Sinaiticus until 1859, of which recently new folios have come to light,[8][9] including the Syriac Sinaiticus.[10][7]

Christian traditions[]

During Catherine's imprisonment more than 200 people came to see her, including Maxentius' wife, Valeria Maximilla; all converted to Christianity and were subsequently martyred.[11] The furious emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch, it shattered.[12] Maxentius ordered her to be beheaded. Catherine herself ordered the execution to commence. A milk-like substance rather than blood flowed from her neck.[13]

Although it is commonly known as Saint Catherine's, the monastery's full official name is the Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai.[citation needed] The patronal feast of the monastery is the Feast of the Transfiguration. The monastery has become a favorite site of pilgrimage.[citation needed]

History[]

1899 map of the monastery surroundings
2011 photo from the north of the monastery, facing southwards
The monastery is located in the shadow of a group of three mountains – Ras Sufsafeh / "Mount Horeb" (peak c.1km west), Jebel Arrenziyeb (peak c.1km south) and Jebel Musa / "Biblical Mount Sinai" (peak c.2km south)
Saint Catherine's Monastery, 1968
Saint Catherine's monastery by Leavitt Hunt, 1852

The oldest record of monastic life at Mount Sinai comes from the travel journal written in Latin by a pilgrim woman named Egeria (Etheria; St Sylvia of Aquitaine) about 381/2–386.[14][15]

The monastery was built by order of Emperor Justinian I (reigned 527–565), enclosing the Chapel of the Burning Bush (also known as "Saint Helen's Chapel") ordered to be built by Empress Consort Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, at the site where Moses is supposed to have seen the burning bush.[16] The living bush on the grounds is purportedly the one seen by Moses.[17] Structurally the monastery's king post truss is the oldest known surviving roof truss in the world.[18] The site is sacred to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.[19]

A mosque was created by converting an existing chapel during the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), which was in regular use until the era of the Mamluk Sultanate in the 13th century and is still in use today on special occasions. During the Ottoman Empire, the mosque was in desolate condition; it was restored in the early 20th century.[20]

During the seventh century, the isolated Christian anchorites of the Sinai were eliminated: only the fortified monastery remained. The monastery is still surrounded by the massive fortifications that have preserved it. Until the twentieth century, access was through a door high in the outer walls. From the time of the First Crusade, the presence of Crusaders in the Sinai until 1270 spurred the interest of European Christians and increased the number of intrepid pilgrims who visited the monastery. The monastery was supported by its dependencies in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Crete, Cyprus and Constantinople.

Ossuary in Saint Catherine's Monastery

The monastery, along with several dependencies in the area, constitute the entire Church of Sinai, which is headed by an archbishop, who is also the abbot of the monastery. The exact administrative status of the church within the Eastern Orthodox Church is ambiguous: by some, including the church itself,[21] it is considered autocephalous,[22][23] by others an autonomous church under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.[24] The archbishop is traditionally consecrated by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem; in recent centuries he has usually resided in Cairo. During the period of the Crusades which was marked by bitterness between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, the monastery was patronized by both the Byzantine emperors and the rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and their respective courts.

On April 18, 2017, an attack by the Islamic State group at a checkpoint near the Monastery killed one policeman and injured three police officers.[25]

Manuscripts and icons[]

Ashtiname of Muhammad, granting protection and other privileges to the followers of Jesus
6th-century hot wax icon

The library, founded sometime between 548 and 565, is the oldest continuously operating library in the world.[26] The monastery library preserves the second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts in the world, outnumbered only by the Vatican Library.[27] It contains Greek, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Syriac, Georgian, Arabic, Ethiopic/Ge‘ez, Latin, Armenian, Church Slavonic, and Caucasian Albanian[28] manuscripts and books, and very rare Hebrew Language,[29] some Coptic books.[7]

In May 1844 and February 1859, Constantin von Tischendorf visited the monastery for research and discovered the Codex 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 for 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 Tsar Alexander II of Russia.[30] The Codex was sold by Stalin in 1933 to the British Museum and is now in the British 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,[31][32] as well as among the New Finds of 1975.[33][7] On other visits (1855, 1859) Constantin von Tischendorf also amassed there more valuable manuscripts (Greek, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Georgian, Syriac) and took them with him to St Petersburg and Leipzig, where they are stored today.[34][35][36][37][38][39][40]

In February 1892, Agnes S. Lewis discovered an old Syriac Sinaiticus, a Gospel palimpsest manuscript in St Catherine Monastery's library that became known as the Syriac Sinaiticus and is still in the its possession.[41] Agnes S. Lewis and her sister Margaret D. Gibson returned in 1893 with a Cambridge team of scholars that included Robert L. Bensly, Francis C. Burkitt, both with their wives, and J. Rendel Harris to photograph and transcribe the manuscript in its entirety, as well as to prepare the first catalogues of the Arabic and Syriac manuscripts.[42][43][44] Only among the New Finds two additional palimpsest manuscripts came to light containing additional passages of the Old Syriac Gosples.[45]

External video
Moses & Bush Icon Sinai c12th century.jpg
video icon The Icons of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt, J. Paul Getty Museum

The Monastery also has a copy of the Ashtiname of Muhammad, in which the Islamic prophet Muhammad is claimed to have bestowed his protection upon the monastery.[46]

Additionally, the monastery houses a copy of Mok'c'evay K'art'lisay, a collection of supplementary books of the Kartlis Cxovreba, dating from the 9th century.[47]

The most important manuscripts have since been filmed or digitized, and so are accessible to scholars. With planning assistance from Ligatus, a research center of the University of the Arts London, the library was extensively renovated, reopening at the end of 2017.[48][49][7]

Sinai Palimpsests Project[]

Since 2011, a team of imaging scientists[50][7] and experienced scholars in the decipherment of palimpsest manuscripts [51][7] from the U.S. and Europe have photographed, digitized, and studied the library's collection of palimpsests during the international Sinai palimpsests project.[52][7][16][53]

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 certain texts with orange juice or scrape them off and write over them.[54][7] Though the original texts were once assumed to be lost,[55] the imaging scientists used narrowband multispectral 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.[16][27] Each page took approximately eight minutes to scan completely.[27] These images have subsequently been digitized and are now freely available for research at the UCLA Online Library for scholarly use.[7]

As of June 2018, at least more than 160 palimpsests were identified, with over 6,800 pages of texts recovered.[7] The newer finds were discovered in a secluded storage area of the St George Tower in 1975.[56][57][58][59][60][61] Highlights include "108 pages of previously unknown Greek poems and the oldest-known recipe attributed to the Greek physician Hippocrates;" additional folios for the transmission of the Old Syriac Gospels;[45] two unattested witnesses of an early Christian apocryphal text the Dormition of Mary (Transitus Mariae) of which most of the Greek text is lost;[62] a previously unknown martyrdom of Patriklos of Caesarea (Palestine), one of the eleven followers of Pamphilus of Caesarea; as well as insight into dead languages such as the previously hardly attested Caucasian Albanian and Christian Palestinian Aramaic, the local dialect of the early Byzantine period, with many unparalleled text witnesses.[7]

Works of art[]

The complex houses irreplaceable works of art: mosaics, the best collection of early icons in the world, many in encaustic, 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 by Byzantine iconoclasm, and never sacked. The oldest icon on an Old 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 of Crusader art, and still retains over 120 icons 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.[63]

Icons[]

  • Icon of the enthroned Virgin and Child with saints and angels, 6th century

  • The oldest known icon of Christ Pantocrator, encaustic on panel

  • Crucifixion, 13th century

  • Holy doors

  • Madonna and Child, 13th century

  • 13th century Byzantine icon of Saint Michael the Archangel

  • Transfiguration, 12th century

  • Emperor John VIII Palaiologos

  • Icon of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

  • The monastery, 18th century

Historical images[]

A panorama of St Catherine's

Saint Catherine's Foundation[]

The is a UK-based non-profit organization that aims to preserve the monastery. The conservation of its architectural structures, paintings, and books comprise much of the Foundation's purpose. The Saint Catherine's Foundation works with its academic partner, the Ligatus Research Center at the University of the Arts, London, to raise awareness of the monastery's unique cultural significance via lectures, books and articles.[64] Founded on November 2, 2007 at the Royal Geographical Society in London needs new funds for the conservation workshop, digitization studio and full complement of conservation boxes designed to protect the most vulnerable manuscripts of the monastery. About 2000 manuscripts should be stored in boxes.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Evans, Helen C. (2004). Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt: A Photographic Essay. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1-58839-109-4.
  2. ^ "Saint Catherine's Monastery | Location, History, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  3. ^ Georgiou, Aristos (December 20, 2017). "These spectacular ancient texts were lost for centuries, and now they can be viewed online". International Business Times. Archived from the original on July 2, 2018.
  4. ^ "Visit Saint Catherine Monastery, Egypt". visitafrica.site. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  5. ^ Din, Mursi Saad El et al.. Sinai: The Site & The History: Essays. New York: New York University Press, 1998. 80. ISBN 0814722032
  6. ^ Jules Leroy; Peter Collin (2004). Monks and Monasteries of the Near East. Gorgias Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN 978-1-59333-276-1.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l "Sinai Palimpsests project". sinai.library.ucla.edu.
  8. ^ Damianós, Archiepískopos Sinâ, "Εἰσήγησις ἐπι τῶν νεωστὶ εὐρεθέντων παλαιῶν χειρογάθων ἐν τῇ Ἱερᾴ μονῇ Σινᾶ," in XVI. Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress, Wien, 4.-9. Oktober 1981. Akten, edited by Herbert Hunger. 11/4, pp. 105-116, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 32/4, Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1982.
  9. ^ Schrope, Mark (June 1, 2015). "Medicine's Hidden Roots in an Ancient Manuscript". The New York Times. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "Saint Catherine of Alexandria". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2010-10-29.
  12. ^ Clugnet 1908.
  13. ^ Morton 1841, p. 133.
  14. ^ John Wilkinson (2015), Egeria’s travels (Oxford: Oxbow Books). ISBN 978-0-85668-710-5
  15. ^ Pilgrimage of Etheria text at ccel.org
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b c Schrope, Mark (September 6, 2012). "In the Sinai, a global team is revolutionizing the preservation of ancient manuscripts". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  17. ^ "Is the Burning Bush Still Burning?". Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  18. ^ Feilden, Bernard M.. Conservation of historic buildings. 3rd ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2003. 51. ISBN 0750658630
  19. ^ "The Monastery". St-Katherine-net. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  20. ^ "Saint Catherine Area".
  21. ^ 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)
  22. ^ Weitzmann, Kurt, in: Galey, John; Sinai and the Monastery of St. Catherine, p. 14, Doubleday, New York (1980) ISBN 0-385-17110-2
  23. ^ Ware, Kallistos (Timothy) (1964). "Part I: History". The Orthodox Church. Penguin Books. Retrieved 2007-07-14. Under Introduction Bishop Kallistos says that Sinai is "autocephalous"; under The 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."
  24. ^ The Orthodox Church of Mount Sinai CNEWA Canada, "A papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral support" Archived May 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  25. ^ "Deadly attack near Egypt's old monastery". BBC News. April 19, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  26. ^ Esparza, Daniel (19 August 2019). "The library of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai has never closed its doors". Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  27. ^ Jump up to: a b c Macdonald, Fleur (June 13, 2018). "Hidden writing in ancient manuscripts". BBC News. Archived from the original on July 2, 2018.
  28. ^ Jost Gippert, The Creation of the Caucasian Alphabets as Phenomenon of Cultural History, in Referate 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.
  29. ^ Bo Isaksson, "The Monastery of St. Catherine and the New Finds," in Built 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.
  30. ^ The History of the acquisition of the Sinai Bible by the Russian Government in the context of recent findings in Russian archives (english Internetedition). The article from A.V. Zakharova was first published in Montfaucon. Études de paléographie, de codicologie et de diplomatique, Moscow–St.Petersburg, 2007, pp. 209–66) see also Alexander Schick, 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 2015, pp. 123–28, 145–55.
  31. ^ "Fragment from world's oldest Bible found hidden in Egyptian monastery". The Independent, 2 Sept, 2009,
  32. ^ "Oldest known Bible to go online". BBC News, 3 August 2005.
  33. ^ David C. Parker (2010), CODEX SINAITICUS: The Story of the World’s Oldest Bible. London. British Library, p. 18. ISBN 9780712358033
  34. ^ 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.
  35. ^ N. Pigoulewsky (1934), Fragments syro-palestiniens des Psaumes CXXIII-IV, Revue Biblique 43, pp. 519–527.
  36. ^ 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.
  37. ^ 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).
  38. ^ 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.
  39. ^ 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.
  40. ^ Paul Géhin (2017), Les manuscrits syriaques de parchemin du Sinaï et leur membra disjecta, CSCO 665 / Subsidia 136 (Louvain: Peeters).
  41. ^ The text was deciphered by Francis C Burkitt and Robert L. Bensly, see Gibson, Margaret Dunlop (1893). How the Codex was Found. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes. pp. 36–38.
  42. ^ Gibson, Margaret Dunlop (1893). How the Codex was Found. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes. pp. 60–67.
  43. ^ 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).
  44. ^ 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).
  45. ^ Jump up to: a b Sebastian 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.
  46. ^ Brandie Ratliff, "The monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai and the Christian communities of the Caliphate." Sinaiticus. The bulletin of the Saint Catherine Foundation (2008) Archived 2015-02-13 at the Wayback Machine.
  47. ^ Kavtaradze, Giorgi (2001). "THE GEORGIAN CHRONICLES AND THE RAISON D'ÈTRE OF THE IBERIAN KINGDOM". Journal of Historical Geography of the Ancient World.
  48. ^ Retrieved 20 May 2018
  49. ^ "Egypt Reopens Ancient Library at St. Catherine Monastery". Voice of America. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  50. ^ Keith Knox (Chief Science Advisor, EMEL, USA); Roger Easton (Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester, USA); William Christens-Barry (Chief Scientist, Equipoise Imaging, LCC, MD, USA); David Kelbe (Centre for Space Science Technology, Alexandra, New Zealand)
  51. ^ Zaza Aleksidze (Tbilisi, Georgia); André Binggili (Paris, France); Sebastian Brock (Oxford, UK); Michelle Brown (London, UK); Guglielmo Cavallo (Rome, Italy); Steve Delamarter (Portland, OR, USA); Alain J. Desreumaux (Paris, France); David Ganz (Cambridge, UK); Paul Géhin (Paris, France); Jost Gippert (Frankfurt, Germany); Sidney Griffeth (Washignton DC, USA); Getachew Haile (Minnesota; New York, USA); Dieter Harlfinger (Hamburg, Germany); Hikmat Kashouh (Metn, Lebanon); Vasilios Karsaros (Thessaloniki, Greece); Grigory Kessel (Vienna, Austria); Daniela Mairhofer (Princeton, NJ, USA); Heinz Miklas (Vienna, Austria); Christa Müller-Kessler (University of Jena, Germany); Panayotis Nikopolous (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 (Viennna, Austria); Alexander Treiger (Nova Scotia, Canada); Agammenon Tselikas (Athens, Greece); Nigel Wilson (Oxford, UK).
  52. ^ The project's original heads were the professor of Byzantine studies Claudia Rapp of the University of Vienna and Michael Phelps of the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (EMEL), Los Angeles.
  53. ^ Hsing, Crystal (April 15, 2011). "Scholars use tech tools to reveal texts". Daily Bruin. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  54. ^ Revel Netz and William Noel (2008), The Archimedes Codex: Revealing the Secrets of the World’s Greatest Palimpsest (London: Phoenix), pp. 120–124.
  55. ^ Marchant, Jo (December 11, 2017). "Archaeologists Are Only Just Beginning to Reveal the Secrets Hidden in These Ancient Manuscripts". Smithsonian. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  56. ^ Ioannis E. Meïmaris (1985), Κατάλογος τῶν νέων ἀραβικῶν χειρογράφων τῆς ἱερᾶς Μονῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης τοῦ Ὄρους Σινᾶ, Ἱερὰ Μονὴ Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης (Athens).
  57. ^ Ioannis C. Tarnanidis (1988), The Slavonic Manuscripts Discovered in 1975 at St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai (Thessaloniki).
  58. ^ Sebastian P. Brock (1995), Catalogue of the “New Finds” in St. Catherine Monastery, Sinai (Athens).
  59. ^ Panayotis G. Nicolopoulos (1999), The New Finds. Holy Monastery and Archdiocese of Sinai (Athens).
  60. ^ 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).
  61. ^ Philothee du Sinaï (2008), Nouveaux manuscrits syriaques du Sinaï (Athens).
  62. ^ 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.
  63. ^ Kurt Weitzmann in The Icon, Evans Brothers Ltd, London (1982), pp. 201–07 (trans. of Le Icone, Montadori 1981), ISBN 0-237-45645-1
  64. ^ "St Catherine Monastery – United Kingdom – Saint Catherine Foundation". St Catherine Monastery – United Kingdom – Saint Catherine Foundation.

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

Further reading[]

  • 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.
  • Agnes Smith Lewis (1898). In the Shadow of Sinai. A Story travel and Research from 1895 to 1897. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes.
  • Oriana Baddeley, Earleen Brunner (1996). The Monastery of St Catherine. pp. 120 pages with 79 colour illustrations. ISBN 978-0-9528063-0-1.
  • 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. ISBN 978-3-374-02586-2.
  • 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. ISBN 0-472-33000-4.
  • Panayotis G. Nicolopoulos (1999), The New Finds. Holy Monastery and Archdiocese of Sinai (Athens). ISBN 9608598427
  • Porter, Stanley E. (2015). Constantine Tischendorf. The Life and Work of a 19th Century Bible Hunter. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0-5676-5803-6.
  • 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. 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). Muldenhammer: Jota. ISBN 978-3-935707-83-1.
  • Soskice, Janet (1991). Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-1-4000-3474-1.
  • 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.
  • Weitzmann, K. (1976). The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mihnt Sinai: The Icons, Volume I: From the Sixth to the Tenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • James Hamilton Charlesworth, The New Discoveries in St. Catherine’s Monastery (= American Schools of Oriental Research Monograph 3) Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1981. ISBN 0-89757-403-6
  • , , 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. ISBN 3496007435
  • 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. ISBN 0-691-03602-0.
  • David C. Parker (2010). CODEX SINAITICUS: The Story of the World’s Oldest Bible. London. British Library. ISBN 9780712358033
  • Paul Géhin (2017). Les manuscrits syriaques de parchemin du Sinaï et leur membra disjecta. CSCO 665 / Subsidia 136. Louvain: Peeters. ISBN 978-90-429-3501-3
  • Alessandro Falcetta (2018). A Biography of James Rendel Harris 1852 - 1941: The Daily Discoveries of a Bible Scholar and Manuscript Hunter. London: T&T Clark. ISBN 9780567684776

External links[]

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