Saint Catherine's Monastery ( , ), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, is a Christian monastery located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Located at the foot of Mount Sinai, it was built between 548 and 565, and is the world's oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery.Din, Mursi Saad El et al.. Sinai: The Site & The History: Essays. New York: New York University Press, 1998. p. 80.
The monastery was built by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, enclosing what is claimed to be the burning bush seen by Moses. Centuries later, the purported body of Catherine of Alexandria, said to have been found in the area, was taken to the monastery; Catherine's relics turned it into an important Christian pilgrimage, and the monastery was eventually renamed after the saint.
Controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, which is part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, the monastery became a World Heritage Site in 2002 for its unique importance to the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The monastery includes a Fatimid mosque built in 1106 AD that is still preserved.
The monastery library holds unique and rare works, such as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Syriac Sinaiticus,Sebastian P. Brock, Two Hitherto Unattested Passages of the Old Syriac Gospels in Palimpsests from St Catherie's Monastery, Sinai, Δελτίο Βιβλικῶν Μελετῶν 31A, 2016, pp. 7–18. as well as a collection of early Christian icons, including the earliest known depiction of Christ Pantocrator.
Saint Catherine's has as its backdrop the three mountains it lies near: Willow Peak (possibly the biblical Mount Horeb, peak c. west); Jebel Arrenziyeb, peak c.1km south; and Mount Sinai (locally, , by tradition identified with the biblical Mount Sinai; peak south).
Christian traditions The monastery was built around the site traditionally considered to be the place of the burning bush seen by the Hebrew prophet Moses. Saint Catherine's monastery also encloses the "Well of Moses", where Moses is said to have met his future wife, Zipporah. The well is still today one of the monastery's main sources of water. The site is considered sacred by adherents of the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Centuries after its foundation, the body of Saint Catherine of Alexandria was said to be found in a cave in the area. The relics of Saint Catherine, kept to this day inside the monastery, have made it a favourite site of pilgrimage. The patronal feast of the monastery is the Feast of the Transfiguration.
History The oldest record of monastic life at Mount Sinai comes from the Itinerarium Egeriae, a travel journal written in Latin by a female Christian pilgrim from the Atlantic coast of Galicia or Roman Gaul named Egeria about 381/2–386.John Wilkinson (2015), Egeria's travels (Oxford: Oxbow Books).
The monastery was built by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (reigned 527–565), enclosing the Chapel of the Burning Bush (also known as "Saint Helen's Chapel") ordered to be built by Empress Consort Helena, mother of Constantine I, at the site where Moses is supposed to have seen the burning bush. The bush on the grounds is said to be the one seen by Moses. Structurally, the monastery's king post truss is the oldest known surviving roof truss in the world.Feilden, Bernard M.. Conservation of historic buildings. 3rd ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2003. p. 51.
From the time of the First Crusade, the presence of Crusaders in the Sinai until 1270 spurred the interest of European Christians. It increased the number of intrepid pilgrims who visited the monastery. Its dependencies in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Crete, Cyprus and Constantinople supported the monastery. Throughout the Middle Ages, the monastery had a multiethnic profile, with monks of Arab, Greek, Syrian, Slavonic and Georgian origin. However, in the Ottoman period, the monastic community became almost exclusively Greek Orthodox, possibly due to the decline and depopulation of Transjordanian Christian towns. From the 1480s onwards, Wallachian princes began sending alms to the monastery.
A mosque was created by converting an existing chapel during the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), which was in regular use until the era of the Mamluk Sultanate in the 13th century and is still in use today on special occasions. During the Ottoman Empire, the mosque was in desolate condition; it was restored in the early 20th century.
During the seventh century, the isolated Christian anchorites of the Sinai were eliminated: only the fortified monastery remained. The monastery is surrounded by the massive fortifications that have preserved it. Until the twentieth century, access was through a door high in the outer walls.
The monastery, along with several dependencies in the area, constitutes the entire Church of Sinai, which is headed by an archbishop, who is also the abbot of the monastery (Archbishop Symeon). The exact administrative status of the church within the Eastern Orthodox Church is ambiguous: by some, including the church itself,The official Website describes the Church as "διοικητικά "αδούλωτος, ασύδοτος, ακαταπάτητος, πάντη και παντός ελευθέρα, αυτοκέφαλος" or "administratively 'free, loose, untresspassable, free from anyone at any time, autocephalous'" (see link below) it is considered autocephalous,Weitzmann, Kurt, in: Galey, John; Sinai and the Monastery of St. Catherine, p. 14, Doubleday, New York (1980) Under Introduction Bishop Kallistos says that Sinai is "autocephalous"; under The twentieth century, Greeks and Arabs he states that "There is some disagreement about whether the monastery should be termed an 'autocephalous' or merely an 'autonomous' Church." by others an autonomous church under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.The Orthodox Church of Mount Sinai CNEWA Canada, "A papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral support" The archbishop is traditionally consecrated by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem; in recent centuries, he has usually resided in Cairo. During the period of the Crusades, which was marked by bitterness between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, the monastery was patronized by both the Byzantine emperors and the rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and their respective courts.
Dominican theologian Felix Fabri visited the monastery in the 15th century and provided a detailed account. He also described the monastery's gardens, noting the presence of "tall fruit trees, salad herbs, grass, and grain," and "more than three thousand olive trees, many fig-trees and pomegranates, and a store of almonds and other fruits." The olives were used to produce oil for lighting lamps and as a relish in the kitchen.Felix Fabri, Vol II. Pt. II. Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society. p. 582
The monastery prospered for most of the Mamluk Sultanate, but as the Sultanate declined, it went through a crisis. While there had been several hundred monks in the mid-14th century, a hundred years later, there were only several dozen. Bedouins began harassing the community, robbing their property in the Christian coastal village of el-Tor. In 1505, the monastery was captured and sacked. Although the Mamluk Sultanate demanded that the property be returned to the monks, they were unable to subdue the Bedouins and maintain order. The German explorer Martin von Baumgarten visited the monastery in 1507 and noticed its decline.
On April 18, 2017, an attack by the Islamic State – Sinai Province at a checkpoint near the monastery killed one policeman and injured three police officers.
On May 28, 2025, the Ismailia Court of Appeal, an Egyptian appellate court, issued a 160-page ruling titled "Property Law, Religious Ownership and International Heritage Obligations: the Legal State of the Saint Catherine’s Monastery at stake" between the South Sinai Governorate and the Church of Sinai over the underlying lands of the monastery and its immediate surroundings. The ruling stated that the monastery has usufruct rights, is part of the public domain, and is classified as an antiquity under the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. It focused on cadastre issues while omitting reference to the Ashtiname of Muhammad and UNESCO. This case is still ongoing as of early 2026, as the South Sinai Governorate filed a request for omission regarding unresolved financial obligations and the extent of administrative authority over property changes.
The ruling also triggered diplomatic concern between Cairo and the EU, particularly Athens and the Greek Orthodox Church, in connection with Egypt’s state-led Great Transfiguration Project. This is a large-scale tourism development project aimed at religious tourism in Saint Catherine’s region. Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem were reportedly reassured by Egyptian officials that the monastery’s religious status would be preserved. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi co-chaired the Higher Council for Cooperation meeting in Athens with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Maximos Mansion.
In a statement issued on June 4, 2025, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty discussed the ruling and reaffirmed cooperation on the matter. On October 30, Michael Rigas attended the enthronement of Symeon VI as Archbishop of Mount Sinai and Raithu at the monastery. Symeon VI, born in Greece, had previously been elected and ordained at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre before traveling to Greece in November. Egyptian authorities maintain that, under administrative practice, the abbot of the monastery must be an Egyptian citizen. Egyptian nationality law generally requires 10 years of residency unless granted by presidential decree.
Manuscripts and icons
The monastery's library, founded sometime between 527 and 565, is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest continuously operating library. It preserves the world's second-largest collection of early codices and manuscripts, outnumbered only by the Vatican Library. It contains Greek, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Syriac, Georgian, Arabic, Geʽez, Latin, Armenian, and Church SlavonicJost Gippert, The Creation of the Caucasian Alphabets as Phenomenon of Cultural History, in Referate des Internationalen Symposiums (Wien, 1.-4. Dezember 2005), ed. by Werner Seibt, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, pp. 39–50, Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2011. manuscripts and books, along with very rare HebrewBo Isaksson, "The Monastery of St. Catherine and the New Finds", in Built on Solid Rock: Studies in Honour of Professor Ebbe Egede Knudsen on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday April 11th 1997, edited by Elie Wardini, pp. 128–140, Oslo: Novus forlag, 1997. and Coptic books.