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Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai
The area around Mount Sinai developed into an important monastic centre
in the third century AD, when Christian converts persecuted by the Romans
fled to the relative safety of the Sinai wilderness. Monastic life gained
new impetus after 313 AD, with the Emperor's Constantine's conversion
to Christianity. By the latter part of the fourth century, a church had
been established at Mount Sinai. Monks gathered here for communal services
from widely dispersed hermitages.
Around 550, by order of the Emperor Justinian, a central monastery was
constructed with high defensive walls and a three-aisled, timber-roofed
basilica. The encircling walls still stand to their full height, while
the basilica displays one of the outstanding works of Byzantine art: the
great sixth-century mosaic of the Transfiguration in the apse.
Saint Catherine's is the oldest monastery of the Christian tradition.
Through the centuries the monastery has survived political and religious
upheavals, not only because of its isolation, but also as a result of
the symbiotic relationship the monks have maintained with the Bedouin
tribes of the Sinai and the peninsula's Muslim rulers. The site of the
monastery, at the foot of Mount Sinai, is sacred to Jews, Christians and
Muslims alike.
The monastery possesses a unique collection of manuscripts, icons and
objects of minor art from the 6-20 centuries. Today, it is not only an
important centre of Orthodoxy, but one of the greatest treasuries of the
world's culture as well.
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The monastery of St.Catherine at the Mount Sinai.

The court in the monastery of
St.Catherine at the Mount Sinai.

The Prophet Moses at the Mount Sinai
Icon - painter Stephanos, early 13th century.

Revelation to Prophet Ilij at the Mount Sinai.
Icon - painter Stephanos, early 13th century.
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