Posted on 07/13/2016 1:25:32 PM PDT by NYer
Considered one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world still in operation, the Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai is home to more than two centuries of history — and more than that of legend. Tradition claims, for example, that the main altar of the monastery is built on the spot where the Burning Bush first addressed Moses. But the monastery, declared a world heritage site by UNESCO, also holds other seats of honor. For example, it accommodates the oldest continuously operating active library in the world.
From the day it was founded in the sixth century (between 548 and 565), the library of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai has never closed its doors. Built during the reign of Justinian I, the building was originally sponsored by the mother of Constantine the Great, Empress Helena. Its walls are still home to ancient Roman scrolls dated back in the days when the monastery itself was founded, which makes Saint Catherine’s the second largest collection of codices and manuscripts in the world, right after the Vatican Library in Rome. In fact, from this monastery comes the famous Codex Sinaiticus, the biblical text dated to the year 345.
From the day it was founded, in the sixth century (between 548 and 565), the library of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai has never closed its doors.
The impressive collection also includes a series of works composed in Syriac, a specifically literary language perhaps derived from East Aramaic dialect. The Syriac collection of the monastery includes, for example, a copy of the Gospels from the 5th century, a copy of the “lives of the holy women” of 779 and a copy of the Apology of Aristides, probably one of the few surviving, as the original Greek version still remains lost.
This collection complements the impressive amount of medieval texts stored in the monastery, including a number of Arabic manuscripts among which a copy of the “Ashtiname Muhammad” can be found. In this text the Muslim prophet claims to offer protection to the monastery, grants tax exemptions to the Christian monks of the monastery and also exempts them from military service during the years the area was under Islamic rule. In fact, during the Fatimid Caliphate, Muslim soldiers were obliged to protect the building and help the monks to support themselves and maintain the monastery.
Currently, the library at UCLA is about to start a project to digitize approximately 1,100 unique Syriac and Arabic manuscripts preserved at the monastery, dating from the 4th to the 17th centuries.
As a young monk and anthropology student, Gruber impulsively selected his dissertation topic contemporary Coptic monasteries after leafing through a National Geographic article on the Nile. The Copts, whose ancestors go back to the time of the Pharaohs, today comprise about 10% of Egypt's population; most practice an ancient form of Christianity that is distinct from Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Coptic monasteries in the Sahara desert became the topic of Gruber's year-long field study and a lifelong focus of personal and professional interest. More than a decade after his year in the desert, he began consulting his notes, letters, interviews and memories in order to create this memoir, whose form is part spiritual journal, part travelogue. It does not entirely succeed in either category. As a spiritual journal, it is distressingly exterior: Gruber reproduces long theological conversations with fellow monks, supplies interesting facts about liturgy and monastic daily life and composes formal prayers, but gives little sense of the interior struggles he must have endured if the year was as transformational as he claims. As a travelogue, his account needs updating; the events depicted took place in 1986-1987, and Gruber nowhere ties them to current Middle Eastern realities. Nevertheless, he tells good stories, like the one about the miracle he inadvertently performed while waiting for a Marian apparition. And who could forget the singing octogenarian who hiked up a mountain with him the week the mercury hit 130 and the thermometers exploded?
Highly recommend this book! It provides tremendous insight into the Coptic monastic life through the lens of a RC monk. Enjoy!
I’m pretty sure original librarian there now works in my local library.
St. Catherine’s is a true treasure. I was fortunate to have visited that monastery several times in the late 80s and they have a magnificent collection of very early portraits of Jesus and the saints.
Imagine the fine on an unreturned book borrowed in 550 AD!
bkmk
Ha ha! I saw that picture, and thought someone was saying that this was the St Catherine’s library. The would have been an insult to me. I also hold the Trinity College library as the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Did you know that the original flat ceiling began to separate because of the weight of the books? The architects hired barrel-makers to put in a more flexible ceiling made of giant half-hoops. And of course, to me, that ceiling is one reason the library is so beautiful.
That’s what one of the volunteers explained to me, anyway.
If it’s anywhere near Sinai, I hope they made digital copies of everything and have it stored off-site.
What that bloody little piece about the Fatimid Caliphate didn’t tell you is that it was this Caliphate which actually desecrated the site built by Justinian I by converting an existing chapel to a mosque. Oh yeah quid pro quo.
Not to worry, they have the Ashtiname. I think there’s a copy in Istanbul as well...
The place has survived because muslims believe that document was signed by Muhammad.
Thank you for posting that image. I imagine the scent of fine woods and old books. The absence of comfortable seating is a bummer.
that the Fatimids were an unusually liberal and tolerant bunch compared to all the rest.
The idea that the site’s defense rests on all muslims knowing about the Ashtiname and not having a knee jerk homicidal reaction to it’s being a Christian site is not very comforting.
The Fatamids were conquerors by Jihad. Thankfully the Crusaders and Byzantines had a hand in weakening and hastening the dissolution of them.
Wow!
Your picture - just WOW.
The monastery is in and of itself, an autocephalous Orthodox Church, the same as Alexandria or Antioch or Constantinople!
I wonder if they have the Harry Potter scrolls in the original Greek and Latin?
Quite an interesting anecdote about coopers being employed in the construction, thanks for sharing.
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