The monastery is surrounded by a massive wall, the original one, erected by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. [citation needed] The patronal feast of the monastery is the Feast of the Transfiguration. [600 A.D]. Data die kalend. In 1930, construction began on a new building along the south wall, which was completed in 1951. [10] Maxentius ordered her to be beheaded. The New Finds correspond to these languages, and are stored adjacent to the library. The conservation of its architectural structures, paintings, and books comprise much of the Foundation's purpose. 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 site contains the world's oldest continually operating library,[4] possessing many unique books as the Codex Sinaiticus until 1859 with recently new folios coming to light[5][6], including the Syriac Sinaiticus. Some of the rare manuscripts in its collection includes the missing parts of Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century handwritten copy of the Greek Bible; the Syriac Sinaiticus, a 4th-century manuscript of the four canonical gospels of the New Testament in Syriac; and the Ashtiname of Muhammad, in which the Islamic prophet Muhammad is claimed to have bestowed his protection upon the monastery. © Amusing Planet, 2020. The exact administrative status of the church within the Eastern Orthodox Church is ambiguous: by some, including the church itself,[19] it is considered autocephalous,[20][21] by others an autonomous church under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem. All Rights Reserved. The Saint Catherine Foundation supports conservation work at Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt and has been the main funder for this project. Naturally, this region is sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. But by the protecting hand of heavenly grace we are raised up again from the deep. The Saint Catherine Foundation . And these pastures in truth we find, when, freed from the winter of this life, we are satisfied with the greenness of eternal life, as of a new Spring. It is usually supposed to mean some wooller article of dress, worn by monks. [citation needed], 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. The room where they were discovered had been used to store manuscripts in earlier centuries, and when the manuscripts were transferred to a new location in the early eighteenth century, these damaged leaves and fragments had been left behind. The burning bush. The monastery is named after Catherine of Alexandria. 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. [12][13], 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. [42], 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. [39][40][41] Only among the New Finds two additional palimpsest manuscripts came to light containing additional passages of the Old Syriac Gosples. In other manuscripts, the capital letters have been designed and executed with a high artistic ability. These were subsequently hidden when the floor above the room gave way during an earthquake. Given on the day of the Kalends of September, Indiction 4. It also contains the world's oldest continually operating library, where is preserved the world’s second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts in a variety of languages, outnumbered only by the Vatican Library. The Codex Sinaiticus contains the oldest surviving complete New Testament. The Tourism and Antiquities Ministry has begun renovating the western part of the Saint Catherine Monastery's Library - which includes 4,500 manuscripts - alongside restoring the monastery's church buildings, the Director-General of Research, Archaeological Studies and Academic publication in South Sinai Abdel Rahim Rihan announced Saturday. Scholars feel that they preserve a very early level of the text, and their study is absolutely essential for anyone wishing to study the history of the text of the scriptures. [30] On other visits (1855, 1859) Constantin von Tischendorf also amassed there more valualable manuscripts (Greek, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Georgian, Syriac) and took them with him to St Petersburg and Leipzig, where they are stored today. Until the twentieth century, access was through a door high in the outer walls. The Sinai manuscripts comprise the oldest and most important Christian monastic library collection. [67], 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. ", 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). The rest are principally in Arabic, Syriac, Georgian, and Slavonic, through there are other manuscripts in Polish, Hebrew, Ethiopian, Armenian, Latin, and Persian. Of its 3,300 manuscripts, two-thirds are in Greek. M. F. Brosset (1858), Note sur un manuscrit géorgien de la Bibliothèque Impériale publique et provenant de M. Tischendorf. Cf. The earliest manuscripts written at Sinai date to the time of the Arab predominance of the area, a time in which contact with the Orthodox centres of book production were difficult. This remains its name today, … This is evidence of manuscript production at Sinai in the sixth century. Propterea misimus laenas XV, ra- chanas XXX , lectos XV , pretium quoque de emendis culcitris vel naula dedimus, quae dilectionem tuam peti— mus non indigne suscipere, sed in loco quo transmissa sunt, praebere. Codices written before the eleventh century are sometimes rich in decoration, while manuscripts written after that date are adorned with miniatures. He had been a scribe, and the library contains manuscripts written in his hand. The manuscripts that are found at the Holy Monastery of Sinai are either the offerings of notable rulers or of simple pilgrims, or they are the work of the monks living at Sinai, written to supply some needed text. Photo credit: Christopher Chan/Flickr. [9] The furious emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch, it shattered. The rest are principally in Arabic, Syriac, Georgian, and Slavonic, through there are other manuscripts in Polish, Hebrew, Ethiopian, Armenian, Latin, and Persian.