The settlement where Episteme dwelt was afterwards allotted to the slaves who were brought into Sinai and appointed to serve the convent by the emperor Justinian († 563). The settlement lay on a slope north-east of the convent facing the valley, and was pointed out to Bishop Pococke in the year 1734.[151] The existence here of a settlement of women, and the value which was set on the bodies of the hermits, are worth noting in connection with the finding of the body of St. Katherine of Alexandria, to which we shall return later.
Other saints who were connected with Sinai were the well-known Cosmas and Damianus, Arab doctors who taught Christianity. There are no traditions regarding their coming into Sinai, but their names were attached to a hermitage, now dilapidated, which stood at Tholas, in the Wadi Tla’ah, and was dedicated to them.
It was customary at the time for the hermits to wander from place to place. Among the famous hermits who visited Sinai was Julian Sabbas († 363), who left his cell near Osrhoene (Edessa), and, with a few devoted followers, sought the remoteness of Sinai where he remained some time. On reaching the desired height (τὸ ποθούμενον ὄρος), he built a church and set up an altar on the stone on which Moses, prince of prophets, rested. Theodoret (c. 450), who related this, stated that the altar remained in his day.[152] Antoninus Martyr (c. 530) noted the existence of an oratory above Pharan, with its altar on the stones which supported Moses when he prayed.[153] The plan and ruins of an oratory are figured in the Ordnance Survey (pl. X), which probably mark this spot. Its erection helped to locate the struggle of Moses and the Amalekites in this valley, which, according to other views, took place further south.
The hermits at this period occupied caverns and huts, an older man, called abbas, i.e. father, usually dwelling with a younger disciple. But as time wore on the cells were more and more grouped around a centre where the hermits assembled once a week for religious service. These centres or churches sometimes consisted of a square tower built of stone, its entrance raised above the ground, and in these the hermits sought refuge in times of danger. One such tower or church stood near Raithou, and formed part of the later convent of St. John; another, the Arbaïn, now in ruins, stood in the Wadi Layan, near the grotto of Onophrius; a third was near the Bush, and was included in the present convent. Tradition claimed that the tower near the Bush, was built by Helena, the mother of the emperor Constantine, and was dedicated to the Theotokos in order to commemorate the spot where the Lord appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush.[154] The tower was pointed out to Burckhardt, and was described by him as of older construction than the convent.[155] The pilgrimage of Helena to the East in the year 326 is well authenticated, but there is no contemporary reference to her entering Sinai. If there were, it would be the earliest association of the site of the convent with the coming of Moses.
We first hear of bishops established in cities of Sinai in connection with religious discussions and difficulties. At the beginning of the fourth century Arius raised doubts regarding the fundamental truth of the Divine Sonship, and a synod of three hundred and ninety bishops met at Nicæa in the year 325 to discuss the question. Among those who set their signature to the declaration of faith which rejected the claims of Arius was Peter, bishop of Ahila, i.e. Aila, a city which, by virtue of its situation was included in the province of Palestine.[156]
As a sequel to these discussions a Council was held in the church of St. Thekla at Seleucia in September of the year 359 by order of the emperor Constantius, at which there were present a hundred and sixty bishops, about two-thirds of whom were semi-Arians. Theoctistes, bishop of Ostracine, was among them.[157] He was therefore deposed by Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria († 371), who appointed, in his stead, Serapion.[158] But the representatives of the neighbouring see of Rhinocorura firmly held by Athanasius, and Sozomenus († 443), after praising the hermits of Nitria, wrote of Rhinocorura, “celebrated at this period for its holy men, who were not from abroad, but natives of the place. Among the most eminent philosophers were Melas, who then administered the church in the country; Dionysius, who presided over a monastery to the north of the city; and Solon, the brother and successor of Melas in the bishopric.” When, owing to a decision of Valens (c. a.d. 364), there was a reaction in favour of Arius, officers appeared at Rhinocorura who were charged with orders to eject those opposed to Arianism. Melas, who did the lowliest work, offered a meal to the officers, waiting on them himself, and declared his willingness to go into exile. His brother Solon gave up commerce in order to embrace the monastic life. “The church of Rhinocorura having been thus from the beginning under the guidance of exemplary bishops, never afterwards swerved from their precepts and produced good men. The clergy of this church dwell in one house, sit at the same table, and have everything in common.”[159] Among these bishops was Polybius, a disciple of Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus († 403), who wrote a supplement to the Life of Epiphanius.
The religious difficulties, combined with the general unrest which followed the conjoint rule of the imperial brothers, Valentinian and Valens (364-367), are reflected in the account told by the Egyptian monk Ammonius of what happened at the time when he was on a visit to Sinai with the hermits at the Bush. The account which he wrote in Coptic is preserved in Greek, in Syriac, and in Latin.[160] It is a composition of considerable merit, to which the condensed account, which follows, can do but scant justice.
“It occurred to me,” wrote Ammonius, “as I sat in my little cell near Alexandria at the place called Canopus, that I could go a journey and thus escape the persecutions (by the Arians) of the faithful, who included our holy bishop Peter (II, 372-380), who was obliged to go into hiding, first at one place and then at another, and was thereby hindered from ministering to his flock. I was, moreover, fired by the desire to see the memorable places, including the Holy Sepulchre, the place of the Resurrection, and others that were associated with our Lord Jesus Christ. After worshipping at these places, I decided to seek the holy mountain called Sinai, going the desert journey together with others who were bent on the same purpose, and I journeyed thither (from Jerusalem) with the help of God in eighteen days. And when I had prayed I remained with the holy fathers in order to visit their several cells to the profit of my soul.”
A description follows of the occupations of the hermits, their solitary life on week-days, and their gatherings in church on Sundays. “Their aspect was that of angels, for they were pallid and, so to say, incorporeal, owing to their abstaining from wine, oil, bread, and other food that tends to luxury, living on dates only, just enough to keep themselves alive.”