Saint Catherine's Monastery

The Today Greek Orthodox Monastery of Saint Catherine (Greek Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης, arab. دير سانت كاترين ) in the Sinai in Egypt was founded in 548-565 and is the oldest still inhabited monastery of Christianity. It lies at the foot of Mount Sinai ( Mount Moses ). This was according to tradition, the burning bush in which God revealed to Moses; here should also according to legend, by an angel brought borne bones of St.. Rest Catherine of Alexandria, whose existence is, however, not historically occupied. The monastery, originally the Theotokos, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was dedicated, was in the West from the 14th and in the East from the 19th century after Holy. Martyr Catherine named.

Saint Catherine's Monastery is one of the oldest monasteries in Christendom. At the same time it is a place where touching Jewish, Christian and Islamic cultural history. Because of its isolated location, the St. Catherine's Monastery is one of the few monasteries that were never destroyed.

The plant, with outbuildings and gardens is on average 1585 meters above sea level in the heart of the southern Sinai near the village Milga below the 2285 m high Mount Sinai and the higher Jabal Katrina and has an area of ​​100 hectares. Built as a fortress monastery itself has a floor area of ​​76 to 85 meters.

Access is possible from Tarfet from where the 1400 m high Watiya Pass must be overcome. To ( about 50,000 annually) to maintain, given the large number of visitors to the monastery operation, the opening times as well as the accessible areas of the monastery were now severely restricted. For visitors, there is only a cafe with some tables and benches in front of the door.

Since 2002, the monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History

According to legend, is mentioned in the Biblical story of Moses burning bush is said to have been associated with a theophany.

Already in the fourth century there were monks in this place and a Lady Chapel. In the oldest source about the monastery, the chronicles of the Patriarch of Alexandria Eutychios from the 9th century, Helena, is called the mother of the Emperor Constantine, as a founder of the Lady Chapel.

Saint Catherine's Monastery was built in its form still preserved under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I to protect the monks and surrounded by a fortress-like walls. Today's main church dates from this time. However, many monks continued to live as hermits or in small groups in the area and went only a threat in the actual monastery. Under Justinian a Moses consecrated church was built on the neighboring summit of Sinai.

Around the year 610, wrote of these Hermit, who was known under the name of John Climacus, here is the essay The ladder of divine ascent, one of the most influential works of the Eastern church, spirituality, which influenced many generations of later monks and other religious people.

According to legend, the Prophet Mohammed is said to have been here several times as a guest before he appeared as a prophet. After his political ascent he had then written a letter to the monastery, where the survival of which was guaranteed. This guarantee has been recognized through the centuries of the Islamic rulers and has secured the existence of the monastery. This letter is now in the museum in Istanbul. In St. Catherine's Monastery is just the copy of this letter by an Ottoman Sultan.

When the Caliph Al -Hakim threatened to destroy the monastery in the early 11th century, built by the monks of the monastery, according to tradition on the grounds near the church a mosque with a minaret, which, however, does not reach the height of the church tower from the 19th century.

Napoleon Bonaparte Even the monastery has written a letter of protection. Thus, the monastery was never attacked since its inception and was received its autonomy.

Special

The Monastery of Saint Catherine, together with the nunnery in Wadi Firan ( Paran ) and few families are usually of Greek origin on the coastal town of at- Tur ( Raitho ) is the smallest of the autonomous Orthodox churches ( see main article Orthodox Church of Mount Sinai ). The abbot of the monastery is also the Archbishop of Sinai, Paran and Raitho. Jurisdiktionell is subject to the Sinai to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, because it is located in the old province of Palestine salutaris. Thus, the currently selected by the monks of the monastery new abbot is consecrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Archbishop.

Library

The monastery library, consisting of four library rooms, is probably the oldest surviving Christian library. It contains six thousand manuscripts in Greek, Syriac, Ethiopian, Arabic, Georgian, and kirchenslavischer language, of which three thousand from antiquity and some older than the monastery itself, a collection that is surpassed in size only by the Vatican Library. Most of these books still have their original binding, in contrast to Western libraries where the Originaleinbände were usually replaced.

In May 1844, Leipzig theologian Konstantin von Tischendorf visited for research purposes, the monastery and discovered the Codex Sinaiticus of the 4th century, the oldest almost completely preserved Bible manuscript. The modalities of how this codex came to Cairo to Moscow, there are of Tischendorf and the monastery different versions. The monks call today the return of the manuscript.

As a result, the monks were certainly much more cautious with their manuscripts. Agnes Smith Lewis was only allowed to write off the 1892 there discovered Syriac NT manuscript.

Meanwhile, the most important manuscripts have been filmed by Americans (1950) and Israel and thus the science accessible. This of course does not apply to the new discoveries of 1975, which were to be exclusively viewed and evaluated only by the professor couple Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster in 1982 so far.

Icon collection

In addition, the monastery has a collection of over 2000 icons, including some of the few that survived intact Byzantine iconoclasm of the 8th and 9th century due to the situation in the Islamic Empire, and thus one of the oldest existing icons include (see Acheiropoieta ).

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