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At the foot of Mount Sinai, according to
tradition, lies the place where Moses tended the
flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law, and where
he saw the Burning Bush. From the end of the
third century the area was settled by small
communities of monks escaping persecution by the
Romans and seeking the spiritual life in the
isolation of the mountains. Some time after 313
A.D., when Constantine had granted freedom of
worship throughout the Roman Empire, the monks
of Sinai petitioned his mother, Helena, for
patronage. Helena answered this request in 330
A.D. by erecting a small church dedicated to the
Virgin Mary, and also a tower on the traditional
site of the Burning Bush to provide refuge for
the monks. In about 530 A.D. Emperor Justinian
ordered the building of the great walled
monastery, with its magnificent church, which
remains to this day. The church incorporated
Helena's earlier building and was also dedicated
to the Virgin Mary, since the church fathers saw
the Burning Bush as a symbol of the
Annunciation. The monastery was originally
called the Monastery of the Transfiguration but
since the eleventh century it has also been
known as St. Catherine's. |
