THE BUILDING OF THE CONVENT

FROM the reign of the emperor Justinian (527-563) dates the fortification of the hermit settlement known as the Bush, which was thereby transformed into a convent, and as such, braved the vicissitudes of many centuries. The fortification was apparently part of a wider scheme by which the emperor used the peninsula of Sinai as a bulwark against the invasion from the east. Movements among the Eastern people were threatening the frontier line of the Roman empire at the time, and its internal organisation was by no means secure.

The care which was bestowed on the convent itself may have been due to the favour which the monophysite form of belief found for a time with Justinian, and more especially with his wife, the empress Theodora († 548). It was owing to her influence that Anthimus I was raised to the see of Constantinople, but a synod convened in the year 536 deposed him. At this synod there were present Paulus II, bishop of Aila,[187] and Theonas, who described himself as “presbyter of Holy Mount Syna, and legate of the church of Pharan and the hermitage of Raithou.”[188] Theonas apparently acted as legate owing to the age and infirmity of Photius, bishop of Pharan. His appointment shows the close connection that existed at the time between the three chief hermit settlements in Sinai proper. The presence of Theonas at Constantinople no doubt furthered, if it did not originate, the idea of fortifying the convents of Sinai.

The building activity of Justinian began about the year 535. Procopius, his secretary, wrote an account of his relations with Sinai and described the life of the monks as “a careful study of death.” They therefore sought the solitude that was dear to them. The emperor, he says, built a church for them which was dedicated to the Theotokos, so that they might spend their life in continual prayer in the service of God, not on the summit of the mountain, but below it, for on the summit thunder and other heavenly phenomena were heard at night, which made it impossible to spend the night there. Here it was that Moses is said to have received the Laws of God and proclaimed them. At the foot of the mountain Justinian built a military station, so that the Saracens might not unawares attack Palestine.[189]

A later age produced a decree of Justinian dated to 551, which declared the independence of the foundation. The decree is no doubt a forgery, but the independent standing of the convent was generally accepted. The terms of the alliance which secured the safety of the settlement were first set forth by Said ibn Batrick, otherwise Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria (933-40), to whom we owe a full account of the building of the convent.

“The monks of Sinai,” he wrote, “hearing of the piety of Justinian, and the delight that he took in building churches and monasteries, went to him and described how the Ishmaelite Arabs harmed them by plundering their food stores, invading and emptying their cells, and entering their churches where they devoured the eucharist. When the emperor enquired into their wishes, they said: We beg for a monastery in which we shall be safe. For at that time there was no convent building in which the monks could congregate. They dwelt scattered in the mountains and along the valleys near the Bush from which the Lord spoke to Moses, having only a large tower above the Bush which is standing to this day, and a church dedicated to the Virgin, where they sought protection when those approached whom they dreaded. The emperor despatched with them a legate with full authority to the prefect of Egypt, asking that he should be supplied with building materials, with men and provisions in Egypt. He was charged to build a monastery at Kelzem (Clysma), and a monastery at Raya (Raithou), and one on Mount Sinai, this to be so fortified that no better could be found.” After building the church of St. Athanasius at Clysma, and the monastery at Raithou, the legate came into Sinai, where he found the Bush in a narrow valley with the tower near it, also bubbling springs and the monks scattered along the valleys. He intended building the monastery on the summit of the mountain, leaving the Bush and the tower below, but he altered his plan because of the lack of water on the mountain, and built the monastery near the Bush enclosing the tower, and a church on the summit of the mountain where Moses accepted the Law. The name of the superior was Doulas. But the change of plan so annoyed the emperor that it cost the legate his life.

In order to safeguard the building, Roman slaves were brought from the Black Sea (traditionally from Wallachia), a hundred in number, and transferred to Sinai with their wives and children, together with a hundred men with their wives and children from Egypt. Dwellings were erected for them in Mount Sinai so that they might safeguard the monastery and the monks; they received their supplies from Egypt. Their settlement was known as the Deir Abid (i.e. monastery of slaves), and their descendants continued there till the spread of the Moslim faith. Moreover the Benu Saleh were appointed to act as ghafirs or protectors to the monks, that is, they were responsible for those moving to and fro across the desert, in return for which they received largess in the form of food.[190] The same terms were mentioned by Makrizi († 1441) in his History of the Copts,[191] and by the Perigraphe in its Arabic translation of the year 1710.[192] According to this the Benu Saleh, the Saidi and the Halig (Aleyat) were attached to the service of the convent which, in return, supplied them with food.

The importance which the agreement attached to the Benu Saleh, was in keeping with the ancient establishment of this tribe in the peninsula, and their association with rites of religious importance in close vicinity to Gebel Musa and on Gebel Musa itself. The tomb of Nebi Saleh lies in the Wadi Sheykh at a distance of a few miles from the convent. It is the scene of an annual tribal festival which concludes with a pilgrimage half-way up the Gebel Musa, where a sheep is sacrificed over a natural hole in the rock. This is looked upon as a footprint of the holy camel, no doubt originally of the Naga, which was the creation of Nebi Saleh.

Early references and the nature of the festival leave no doubt as to its antiquity.

Thus, the writer Antoninus Martyr, who, about the year 530, entered Sinai from Gaza, journeyed by way of Elath (Elusa), “at the beginning of the desert that goes to Sinai,” and mentioned a festival that was about to take place. The people who entered the greater desert were in number twelve thousand (c. 36). On the eighth day after leaving Gaza, he reached the place where Moses brought forth water from the rock, and came to Horeb, which, in his estimation, was distinct from Sinai.

“Mount Syna,” he wrote, “is stony, and there is little earth, and in its neighbourhood are many cells of men who serve God, the same in Horeb. And in this part of the mountain the Saracens have an idol of marble white as snow. A priest (sacerdos) of theirs dwells there, who wears a dalmatica and a linen cloak (pallium). And when the time of their festival comes previous to the appearance of the moon (prÆcurrente lunÆ), before it appears on the festive day, the marble begins to change its colour, and when they begin to adore it, the marble is black as pitch. The time of the festival being over, it returns to its former colour. At this I wondered greatly.”[193]

The rites that are accounted holy in this neighbourhood are associated with different prophets. Prof. E. H. Palmer († 1882) remarked that the Bedawyn “often fail to discriminate between Nebi Saleh, Moses and Mohammad. Thus, the footprint of the camel which was venerated at the conclusion of the festival of Nebi Saleh, has been incorporated in a tradition regarding Mohammad, who after death was carried aloft by a camel of so prodigious a size that it stood with one foot in Damascus, one in Cairo, one in Mecca, and one in Sinai.”[194]

The monk Antoninus Martyr made a short stay at the convent, and wrote that “the days of the festival of the Ishmaelites were drawing to a close, and the order went forth that no one should remain in the desert through which we had come, so some returned to the Holy City (i.e. Jerusalem) through Egypt, others through Arabia” (c. 39).

The work of feeding the Arabs who came to the convent was no mean undertaking. Anastasius, the monk, wrote that the Armenians more especially came there,—“it was their custom as it was the custom of every one.” There were six hundred of them on one occasion, and a man among them who waited on them and then disappeared. In the estimation of Anastasius this was “Moses himself, who came to receive his visitors” (no. 7). The number of pilgrims at this time (c. 600) was less, he remarked, than thirty years before, when as many as eight hundred came and ascended the holy mountain, where they saw a vision of God and a miracle, the summit of the mountain appearing enveloped in fire (no. 38). The appearance of fire on the mountain had previously been mentioned by Ammonius about the year 372. It may have formed part of a system of signalling adopted by the Bedawyn.

This confusion between the different prophets is reflected in a statement in the Perigraphe in the Arabic translation of 1710, which described Saleh as a Christian who had his tomb not far from the monastery.[195] This tradition should be compared with one current in the Middle Ages that Mohammad the Prophet was the disciple of a Christian monk.

The tomb of Saleh in the Wadi Sheykh was noticed by Bishop Pococke in 1726 (i. 141), and Burckhardt, in 1816, mentioned the celebration held here which took place in the last week in May (p. 489). This festival was described in detail by Tischendorf who saw it in 1846,[196] and by Prof. E. H. Palmer, who witnessed it in June of 1870.[197]

The festival took place at the time when the dates ripened, and lasted three days. Tribes from all parts of the peninsula, including women and children, assembled in the Wadi Sheykh near the insignificant-looking tomb which consisted of a domed chamber cemented over, with an empty coffin standing inside. Pieces of cloth, ostrich eggs, tassels and other parts of camel equipment were brought as offerings and suspended from the roof. The first step in the festivity consisted in renovating and whitewashing the tomb. In a large tent erected outside forty to fifty men assembled and sat in a circle, while the first of all the sheykhs barefoot and wearing the white garment (Imam) and a white turban over his red fez, sat near the fire. A procession headed by the women encircled the tomb. The young men then brought out fifty to sixty lambs which were cut on the forehead, and blood was drawn before they were slaughtered, skinned and cut up. While the food was boiling a camel race took place, four to six camels racing at a time. Four to six persons then sat around each lambskin which was spread on the ground, and on it their share of boiled lambs’ flesh was poured out, which they ate using their fingers. Besides the flesh there were meal-cakes (bilaw), and water to drink. A dance followed in which men and women took part, and which was timed to singing and clapping of hands. Besides this, two women danced figures outside the group. Men and women remained conversing in couples till late at night. The celebration struck Tischendorf as dignified. At its conclusion some of the Bedawyn repaired to the summit of the Gebel Musa, where there stood a small and highly revered mosque (mentioned as early as 1335), which they entered, wearing the Imam or white garment. Over the natural hole, called the footprint of the prophet’s she-camel, they sacrificed a sheep.

A further festivity took place in former days near the summit of the Gebel Musa which we hear of in the sixteenth century only and not again. Early writers agree that no hermit or monk ever spent a night on the summit of the mountain. Nilus (c. 400) remarked that the height was generally avoided “since God conferred there with the people,” while Etheria and Antoninus Martyr simply noted that no hermit spent the night there. This fact Procopius (c. 550) connected with “heavenly phenomena.” At a later date the hermit Simeon, for a time, dwelt “on the summit of Mount Sinai, where the Law was given, a place deserted because of the restless Arabs.”

This avoidance of the mountain-top at night by the Christians finds its explanation in the account of Gregor, prior of the Carthusian house of Gaming, who came into Sinai with Martin Baumgarten and others in the year 1507. The party decided to spend the night on the Mount of the Law, where the building that was close to the summit was the scene of a Saracen festivity of so noisy a character, that the Christian pilgrims hardly slept all night. It included “a bestial service in the belief that those who were here conceived were endowed with a holy and prophetic spirit” (proles enim hic concepta, sancto et prophetico spiritu plena ab eis Æstimatur).[198] The spot chosen seems to have been a cave between the chapel of Moses and the small mosque. Similar unions led, from the same belief according to Tobler, to the desecration at one time of the holy cave at Bethlehem.[199] This cave, according to a statement of Jerome, was connected with the cult of Adonis in ancient times. Perhaps the hold which the Saracens had on the Gebel Musa in early days was another reason why the convent builder chose the lower site.

No further mention is made of the church of St. Athanasius which the emperor Justinian had constructed at Clysma. The monastery which he built or fortified at Raithou frequently served as a refuge to the monks of the convent in times of stress. Its church was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and continued till the period of Turkish domination when it was destroyed.

The convent of the Bush alone continued. It had an independent standing, perhaps owing to its being originally merged with the bishopric of Pharan. The head of the house was chosen from its inmates, and he called himself bishop. Later he assumed the title of archbishop. Owing, however, to his peculiar standing he was referred to as archbishop at a time when he called himself bishop only, as we shall see later.

The convent at first served as the nucleus of the numerous hermitages in southern Sinai. Later, as these disappeared, it continued in proud isolation. In addition to the house at Raithou, it acquired property and built priories in many outlying districts, and rose to a position of importance that was in every way exceptional.

The convent retains to this day its original appearance. It is enclosed by walls built of well-dressed blocks of grey granite forming an irregular quadrangle, 280 feet at its greatest length, and 250 ft. at its greatest breadth. The walls enclosed the old tower, a church, and the convent buildings, with the cells for the monks, a guest-house, bakeries, stables, and a library. Adjoining these buildings was the garden, which extended on one side, along the valley about 200 feet, with several springs of good water, and plantations of fruit trees, including olive, pomegranate, almond and peach, pear and apple trees. The produce of these remained famous throughout the Middle Ages.

The church was a basilica in the Byzantine style. It was lighted by five windows on either side, and the entablature of the nave rested on round arches which were supported by six pairs of granite columns with leafy capitals. The roof was of cypress wood covered with lead, and contained three contemporary inscriptions. One of these commemorated “our holy king, Justinian the Great;” another was devoted to the memory of Theodora, who died in 548; the third called a blessing on the builder, Stephanos and his family. “Lord God, who didst appear on this spot, save and bless thy slave Stephanos, the builder of this monastery, from Aila, and Nonna (his wife), and give rest to the souls of their children, George, Sergius, and Theodora.”[200]

The church was dedicated to the Virgin, as we learn from Eutychius, whose statement was confirmed by Magister Thietmar in 1217, and by the Papal Bull of 1226. In the Middle Ages it was sometimes spoken of as the church of St. Katherine, and later still as the church of the Transfiguration. The latter name was due to a great mosaic representation on the apse which is shown by its style to belong to the seventh or eighth century. The mosaic was first drawn and described by Laborde and Linant.[201] On this mosaic the youthful Christ was represented soaring towards heaven, with Elijah on one side pointing to Him, while Moses on the other side stands with hand upraised. John is seen kneeling, James also is represented kneeling, Peter is prostrate. Each figure is named. This scene is framed by thirty medallions, which represent the Twelve Apostles, Paul, the superior of the convent, who is not named, and sixteen prophets. Above, to the right, Moses is seen kneeling before the Bush; to the left, he is represented holding the Tables. Below, are two angels with extended wings and two further portraits of which the one shows a bearded man with flowing locks, the other a woman with close-fitting head-dress. They are sometimes pointed out as Constantine and Helena, sometimes as Justinian and Theodora, but their identity remains unknown. Below, stand the words in Greek, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the whole of this work was executed for the salvation of those who contributed towards it by Longinus, most holy priest and superior (t?? ?s??t?t?? p?es?t???? ?a? ????????).”[202] The floor was covered with a mosaic which was torn up by the Arab treasure seekers in the fifteenth century, but restored by Bishop Anastasius (1583-1592).

Two crypts inside the convent walls served to house the bones of the dead. Their corpses were first laid for two or three years on an iron grating in a cellar; the skull was then transferred to one crypt and the bones to the other. The bones were sorted and added to the piles of corresponding bones, so that the femurs, the tibias, etc., lie piled together. The archbishops’ corpses were, however preserved intact, and, wearing their robes,[203] were placed in mummy coffins. The use of the iron grating and the crypts dates back to the earliest days of the convent, for among the stories collected by Anastasius, one described how two corpses were laid side by side on the grating, but the one, disliking the proximity of the other, repeatedly moved, throwing it out of place, until it was officially adjured not to do so.

The convent included a hostel for the aged and for pilgrims, built by a certain Isaurus (quodam Isauro). It attracted the attention of Pope Gregory the Great (592-604), who, hearing of it, forwarded to John Climacus, who was superior at the time, woollen coverings and bedding for fifteen beds, together with money wherewith to purchase feather-beds. At the same time he wrote to Father Palladius, to whom he forwarded a cowl or tunic. The Pope had previously written to John Climacus, complimenting him on having reached a harbour of safety while others were tossing on a sea of religious difficulties.[204] He seems to have made a permanent grant to the convent. A pilgrim of 1341 mentioned that the day of St. Gregory was kept at the convent, since he had bestowed on it alms out of the treasury of the Church, by which the number of convent inmates was raised to four hundred.

The interest which Pope Gregory took in the convent was probably connected with a pilgrimage made by the Roman patrician lady Rusticiana. In the year 592 she took her daughter, who was ill, to Sinai in the hope of effecting a cure. The husband of the daughter was also of the party. They started from Constantinople and returned sooner than was expected. This we learn from a letter which Rusticiana wrote to Pope Gregory.[205]

In Sinai the monk Anastasius recorded the visit of a patrician lady who came with her daughter and wished to consult Father Orontius, “who was so filled with divine fire that he could hold his hand in the flame, and burn incense on the palm of his hand.” On one occasion, however, he lost a finger by burning. But Orontius refused to see the ladies, he sent them some grapes instead. When the demon who was in the daughter, saw the grapes, he cried out: Father Orontius, why do you come here? And he departed out of her (no. 18). It was doubtless the same hermit, in this case called Orontos, who once came into church with his cowl all awry. When his attention was drawn to it, he said that all things being awry in the church, his cowl was in keeping with them. If they would set things straight there, he would see to his cowl.

A great feature of the convent of Sinai was its library, where the monks amassed books and manuscripts, and added to the world’s literature by copying and writing. The place was a polyglot centre. Antoninus Martyr found three Fathers there who spoke Latin, Greek, Syriac, Egyptian (Coptic), and Bessam (Persian), and many interpreters in each language (c. 37). The hermit Simeon, who came into Europe about the year 1025, spoke Egyptian, Syriac, Arabic, Greek and Roman (i.e. Latin).

The contents of the library, in spite of losses incurred at different times, are still considerable. Among its most notable treasures was the Codex Sinaiticus, dated to about the year 400, which helped to revise the text of most of the Greek Old Testament, of the New Testament, and of some important early Christian works, including the Shepherd of Hermas. Attention was attracted to this Codex by Tischendorf, who came to the convent in 1844 to inspect the MSS., and having identified some of its pages, returned in 1853, in 1854, and in 1859, when he finally acquired it for Petrograd, a facsimile copy being deposited at the convent. A few leaves are at Leipzig. Another notable treasure was a Syriac Codex of the Gospels of a very early date, which was discovered as a palimpsest and photographed by the sisters, Mrs. Smith-Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, in 1893. Again, there was the Evangeliarium Theodosianum, a collection of passages from the New Testament written in gold lettering on parchment, which was seen and described by Burckhardt in 1816, and is dated to about the year 1000.

The Greek MSS. that are in the library were recently examined and catalogued by Prof. Gardthausen of Oxford. The list contains 1230 entries of MSS. that are all of a religious character. Prof. Gardthausen noted the names of over two hundred scribes, and other details which show that some of the MSS. came from Crete, Cairo, and Cyprus.[206] The Syriac and Palestinian-Syriac MSS. were catalogued by the ladies Smith-Lewis and Gibson. They are over three hundred in number. The Christian Arabic MSS. catalogued by the same ladies, amounted to six hundred and eighty entries.[207]

The importance which was secured to the convent reacted on the standing of the bishopric of Pharan, the representative of which seems to have removed to the convent. When Peter, patriarch of Jerusalem, (524-544) summoned his bishops to a synod in 538, Photius, bishop of Pharan, who was close upon seventy years of age, was “unable to leave Mount Sinai,” which suggests that he lived there. Stephen of Cappadocia, mentioned above, Dulcetius and Zosimus were deputed to represent him. We again hear of Zosimus as one of three monks of Sinai, whom Apollinaris, the orthodox or Melkite patriarch of Alexandria (550-568), summoned to Alexandria. Of these he consecrated Theodor bishop of Leontopolis, an unnamed monk, bishop of Heliopolis, and Zosimus bishop of Babylon (Cairo). But Zosimus had no taste for the episcopate, and soon returned to his cell in Sinai.[208]

Likewise do we hear that Gregorius, who had presided over the monks in Sinai, was chosen to succeed Anastasius, bishop of the see of Antioch who was evicted in the year 569. According to information provided by Evagrius (593), he had there been besieged by the Kenite Arabs.[209] The country generally seems to have been at the mercy of the Arabs, which resulted in the abandonment of the hermitages, while it added to the prestige of the convent.

About this time the convent became the home of a young monk who was always silent. He was the only surviving son of the emperor Maurice, and was saved by his nurse when all the other sons were put to death by Phocas (602-608).[210] When he died his body disappeared. “Perhaps it was carried by God to the realms of the living,” was the verdict of the monk Anastasius (no. 29).

The last bishop of Pharan we hear of was Theodor, who proposed the so-called monothelite modification of the monophysite doctrine, hoping thereby to secure re-union with the Church. In its interest he went to Constantinople, where he was honourably entertained by the patriarch Sergius (610-638), who impressed Pope Honorius (625-638) in Theodor’s favour. Objection was, however, raised to the new doctrine by the monk Sophronius, who later became patriarch of Jerusalem (634-638), and disapproval of it was expressed by the Lateran Synod of 649,[211] and by the Sixth General Council of Constantinople in 681.

In the Wadi Feiran lie the ruins of a convent and a church of some importance which were described by the Ordnance Survey (i. 210), and are without doubt the remains of the episcopal seat of Pharan.