The Monastery Of Saint Catherine At Mount Sinai

"In this book the Monastery and its buildings are presented in many newly commissioned color photographs: included are views of the richly decorated sanctuary of the sixth-century church as well as images of the world's most outstanding collection of icons. The Introduction by His Eminence Archbishop Damianos of Sinai and the essay on the Holy Monastery by Helen C. Evans augment the powerful and dramatic photographs of the site, some of them from the Monastery's archives"--Jacket.

The Holy Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai has been characterized by scholars as the most celebrated of the world's monasteries, while in the conscience of the Orthodox peoples it was and remains the most revered and longed-for focus of pilgrimage after the Holy Places. In the course of the Monastery's fifteen centuries of uninterrupted life, and despite the great difficulties faced in the midst of alien peoples, not only has St. Catherine's managed to maintain the Orthodox faith intact and provide the Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate with pre-eminent figures of Asceticism, but it also secured special privileges from the Prophet Mohammed and, at a later date, from popes of Rome and leaders of both the East and West. The Monastery thus proved itself a great spiritual hearth of Hellenism, rendering the most distinguished service to monasticism, Orthodoxy, the Church and the Greek people. At the same time, the Monastery acquired international fame as a unique centre of Byzantine icon painting. Here the specialist may study the uninterrupted development of this art from the 6th century up till the present day. Furthermore, the Monastery also developed its own Sinaitic school of icon painting with its own stylistic techniques and 'Sinaitic' subject matter. Examples of this school's work are encountered not only in icons but also in illuminated manuscripts of the calligraphic and chrysographic workshop of the Monastery's world-famous Library. The Monastery of Sinai, moreover, surrounded as it is by the fortification walls built by its founder, the Emperor Justinian, and isolated in the inhospitable desert, was through the centuries a secure haven for invaluable works of art sent from all corners of the Earth as devout offerings of the faithful. Byzantine, Post-Byzantine and Modern Greek works representing all types of ecclesiastical art make up the artistic treasures of the Monastery.

John Climacus (c. 579-649) was abbot of the monastery of Catherine on Mount Sinai. His Ladder was the most widely used handbook of the ascetical life in the ancient Greek Church.

At the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai is preserved the one Byzantine monastic library that antedates those on Mount Athos, and the only one that retains something like its medieval profile. Kurt Weitzmann and George Galavaris present a catalogue of the sixty-nine illuminated manuscripts from the period between the ninth century and about 1200. The visual documentation amounts to over 700 illustrations, including ornamental decorations, many never before published. The discussions of the manuscripts include palaeographical and codicological data, and information on the history and condition, bindings, illustrations, and iconography and style of each item. A bibliography is also included for each. The introduction gives a survey of the history and vicissitudes of the library, which is now housed in a fireproof building. Some of the manuscripts were certainly produced on Sinai, while others may be attributed to the eastern or western provinces of the Empire. The finest are Constantinopolitan works of outstanding quality and merit. A second volume, to appear later, will include the manuscripts written between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.