The Sinai Monastery, despite being beyond the borders of the Byzantine Empire less than a century after its foundation (549-565 AD) by Justinian, has endured up to the present time as a microcosmic ‘Byzantium beyond Byzantium’ across both space and time. It serves as a focal point for the study of issues related to the continuity of Byzantine and post-Byzantine art and literature, society, institutions, and ideology. The participants in the Thematic Session will offer new evidence on the study of architectural remains, wall paintings, icons, and musical manuscripts which will be viewed within their historical and cultural contexts and interpreted through the relationship of the Greek-speaking (in terms of the liturgical language) brotherhood to the cohabiting non-Greek-speaking monks or the neighboring non-Christians or the heterodox pilgrims. Participants will also focus on matters concerning the reception of Byzantium and the Sinaitic legacy by other Orthodox communities and the interaction with different cultural and ethnic environments of the Eastern Mediterranean, especially Georgia, and Western Europe, within the framework of monastic coexistence and pilgrimage. Additionally, they will shed new light on the relationship of the Monastery of Sinai to the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Alexandria regarding ecclesiastical institutional matters. Finally, emphasis will be placed on the role of the Monastery of Sinai in the rediscovery of Byzantium by scholars in the modern era as a universal entity engaged in a continuous dialogue beyond the confines of state borders, languages, religious beliefs, and ethnic perceptions.
The collection of musical manuscripts of the Sinai Library includes specimens in Syriac and Byzantine notation dating back to the 13th century. These manuscripts provide evidence of the spread of liturgical practice and Byzantine notation beyond the boundaries of the Greek language. The case of the Sinai Syriac music manuscripts offers the possibility of relating…
The 6th-century funerary inscription of the Forty Martyrs of Raithou has been mounted on the south wall of the Chapel of the Holy Fathers, southeast of the Katholikon of the Sinai Monastery, since at least 1214. Its position recalls the funerary character of southern chapels in early Christian basilicas, suggesting an early transfer of the…
Russian engagement with the treasures of the Sinai Monastery began with Archimandrite Porfirii Uspenskii’s visits in 1845 and 1850. His published account (1856) provides detailed descriptions of the monastery’s history, condition, and manuscript collection. Porfirii examined the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, removing a few folia, and left extensive archival material. His manuscript collection, now housed in…
This paper examines the monumental fresco of the Last Judgment that covers the eastern wall of the Old Refectory of Saint Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai, dated by an inscription to 1573. Through a combination of iconographic analysis, stylistic examination, and, where available, consultation of written sources, the paper seeks to clarify the painter’s origins and…
Founded within the Eastern Roman Empire yet soon situated beyond its borders, the Monastery of Sinai remained a vital center of Christian civilization and a prominent Byzantine institution outside imperial territory. Its close ties with the Patriarchates of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch—stemming from its canonical dependence on the first and its geographical proximity to the…