Monastery of St. Katherine

Background and History

The Monastery of St. Katherine is established on the tradition of early Christian monasticism, on the spirituality of the desert and the preposition that because the desert is a hard place one might meet God there. Monasticism arose and first flowered in the spiritual heartland of the Judeo-Christian and Muslim world, the desert within a 300 km radius of Mount Sinai, around 250 AD, partly due to the persecutions which forced Egyptian christians to flee into the Sinai desert. When persecutions ceased, Feran, being fertile and hospitable , became the most attractive place in the Sinai for those with a monastic inclination. Gebel Serbal was for some time regarded as the Moses Mountain. Monks today say that their predecessors knew with certainty that they had found Moses Mountain (or Mount Sinai) when local bedouins showed them a special bush at the foot of the mountain, believed to be the Burning Bush (350 AD). A Syrian monk visited the site around 360 AD and built the first chapel on the summit. Around 380 AD anchorites built a tower, where they could retreat when attacked, and a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary next to the Burning Bush. Hermits and anchorites were living in the mountains around Mount Sinai, where they had their own gardens and fruit trees in soil filled basins, practicing the fine arts of grafting and breeding. Only on Saturdays and Sundays they came down to the chapel for Mass and to exchange goods.

During the reign of Emperor Justinian (527 - 567 AD), marauding nomads were tormenting the monks, plundering food stores and desecrating churches. According to the official version the monks pleaded to the Emperor, who had a reputation as great builder and defender of Christendom, who consented to build a monastery. But Justinian had, of course, more strategic reasons for building the monastery. His realm stretched from Gibraltar to Mesopotamia. He tried to secure the vulnerable eastern and southern frontiers by building fortresses to serve as defence outposts. Some of these fortresses were also monasteries in which monks served as agents of the empire. Nearby he also built the monastery of Kolzim (now Suez) and Raithu (now El Tor), both important trading ports.

photo: Frans v. Zomeren

The monastery walls enclosed the Burning Bush, the church and the tower, an area of 70 x 80 meters. The walls were built of native granite, 12 - 15 meters high and 2 - 4 meters thick. Justinian's builders, brought by Justinian from East Europe and Alexandria and the ancestors of the Jabaliya bedouins (see also The Jabaliya in St. Katherine), converted the church into a basilica incorporating the area's holiest site - that of the Burning Bush . The basilica was dedicated as the Basilica of the Transfiguration, its apse bearing a lovely mosaic of the appearance on Mount Tabor of Christ, flanked by Moses and Elijah. Monks boast that the basilica's doors, carved with animals, birds and plants, are the worlds oldest functioning doors. Wood for the doors and other parts was used from local trees.

The monastery, consecrated as the Monastery of St. Mary, bears an inscription above the main entrance (western wall) written in greek and arabic:"This holy monastery was erected on Mount Sinai, where God spoke unto Moses, by the humble king of the Romans, Justinian, unto the everlasting remembrance of himself and his wife Theodora."

Accounts say that the prophet Mohammed visited the Sinai as a merchant, before he became the prophet, and was taken in by the monastery and treated well. So when a delegation of monks traveled to Medina in 625 to obtain patronage and protection, the guarantee came in the form of a document signed by the prophet, exempting the monks from military service and taxation and offering them his protection.This document was taken by Sultan Selim in 1517 to enrich his collection, but a copy still remains in the monastery. In 639 Caliph Omar and his troops conquered the Sinai and Egypt. The Caliph, ruling from 634 -644 AD, ordered all inhabitants except the monks to convert to Islam. The monks continued to live unmolested in their monastery.

The mosque inside the Monastery walls was, according to the monks, built when Caliph el Hakim (1010 AD) set out to raze the Monastery, so a party of monks went out to meet the Caliph imploring him to save the Monastery, it being a holy place for Muslims. At the same time another party of monks worked feverishly to erect the mosque on a spot where they said the prophet of Mohammed had stood. In actuality the mosque was built later, around 1106, after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, maybe to ward off an attack of Ottoman troops.

From 1000 AD onwards the Monastery became associated with the sacred figure of St. Katherine (see Mount Katherine). News of miracles spread as Katherine's remains continued to heal the sick. The spirit of Katherine counseled Jeanne d' Arc. She became the patron saint of many churches, universities and hospitals throughout Europe. Her remains were brought down from the mountain to a golden casket in the basilica, and the monastery was renamed to the Monastery of St. Katherine.

The Monastery of St. Katherine acquired the culture and doctrine of the Byzantine Orthodox Church but, because of its fame and remote setting, developed a large degree of independence and autonomy. It stayed out of the split between the Roman and Orthodox churches (1054) and retained good connections with Rome. Nominally subject to the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem until 1782 and still ordained by him, the monastery's archbishop and abbot in fact act independently. This independence and autonomy were very profitable to the monastery as it was not obliged to share money and material wealth brought by pilgrims and crusaders and donated by many kings. Even the fall of Sinai to the Ottoman Turks (sultan Selim) did not stop the flow of income, as the monastery received protection by a decree issued by Sultan Selim in 1517. The monastery also profited from gifts of land granted by crusaders and other conquerors. The monastery had cells or daughter-houses throughout Egypt, Persia, along the Red Sea and Arabia. Eventually, in the 13th century, the monastery had 105 separate properties. The monastery's most important daughter-houses stood on Crete, due to donations dating back as far as the 10 century, but mainly thanks to donations given by the Archbishop of Crete, a lover of St. Katherine, in 1203 AD. The Cretan heritage is prominent in the monastery's collection of some 2000 icons, of which 1500 are Cretan.

The cult of St. Katherine declined with the Reformation in the 16th century. The monastery might have become poorer if the Russian Czar did not intervene, becoming the Orthodox protector. Russian Czars continued to bestow magnificent gifts on the monastery until the 1st World War and the Russian Revolution brought Czar-dom to an end. The monastery's fortunes declined , properties were confiscated or destroyed. There are only 11 daughter-houses left: two on Crete, one on the Greek island Zakynthos, three on mainland Greece, one in Istanbul, two on mainland Egypt and the monastery of Feran and El Tor.

The Monastery today follows the liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church , and the rule of St. Basil.

St. Basil (329-379 AD) was born in Caesarea , as oldest son of a family of 10 . He studied in Athens where he excelled in philosophy, poetry, and every other branch of literature as well the study and knowledge of the Bible. He returned to Caesarea, Cappadocia,in 355. He left to Pontus in 358 where he founded a monastery. In later years he founded several other monasteries in Pontus. He wrote The Longer and Shorter Rules to direct the monks: he orders that monks exercise hospitality to strangers, he mentions and excellently recommends each canonical hour of prayer. In 366 he returns to Caesarea and in 370 he was ordained archbishop.

continue on next page