The
Monastery The
Treasures St.
Catherine Mt.
Moses
Isolated
and protected by the surrounding majestic mountains the monastery
St. Katherine is the major attraction for tourists visiting the
area.
At the foot of the mountain
where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments, lies
the monastery. Early Christian hermits, searching seclusion from
worldly affairs, were living in the are of the holy mountain since the
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 let a chapel be build at the site. She dedicated it to the
Virgin Mary.
Many early pilgrims reported about massacres
among the monks. Finally in 527 AD Emperor Justinian ordered the
construction of a fortress to protect the hermits of the High Mountains. Above the heavy wooden entrance wooden
frames carry 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
presenting the huge icons of St. John the Baptist, the Holy
Virgin, Christ, and St. Catherine. The monastery’s treasure is
a 6th century mosaic showing the transfiguration
of Christ.
Only the basilica is open to today’s visitors.
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The
Chapel of the Burning Bush is the sacred part of the monastery.
Once it contained the Burning Bush, which is replaced outside
of the chapel and fenced behind a stone wall. Every Saturday the
monks hold their liturgy in the chapel. Anyone entering 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…”
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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 against 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, telling from the separation
of the Latin and Eastern churches, the period of the iconoclasm
and until the 18th 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 4th century and shares
with the Codex Vaticanus to be the first copies of the Greek
Bible. Whereas the Codex Sinaiticus is more complete and less
corrupted.
Controversies over what is fiction in the later versions of
the bible - related to the discovery that the oldest gospels
of Mark miss the treasured biblical stories - will continue.
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St.
Catherine
The legend tells, that the virgin Catherine died a martyr death
in the 4th century. It is said, that she was the
daughter of a noble family from Alexandria. Beautiful and sophisticated
in philosophy, poetry, mathematics and languages she tried to
convert Emperor Maximanus. She astonished him with her knowledge,
her rhetoric and logic. She succeeded to convert many of
those in his closest circle. He sentenced her to death. Catherine
was attached to four wooden wheel rotating into opposite directions.
Like a miracle she survived, and finally Maximanus decreed that
she should be beheaded.
The church of St. Catherine in Alexandria is said to be the
place of her martyrdom.
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 remained in the Church of Transfiguration. Every
year on Nov 25th the monks celebrate the anniversary
of her martyrdom, and her relics are carried in a great procession
around the Church.
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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 he heard the confessions of the pilgrims and giving them
absolution before letting them pass The steep way down leads to
points with extraordinary views, always the smell of herbal plants
and the chirping birds at company.
