A History of Sinai

by Lina Eckenstein

Many hanging lamps were now kept burning in the convent church, the number of which Jacopo estimated as three hundred. Sir John held that they indicated the presence of as many monks, and he added that when the prelate of the abbey died, his lamp went out and lit again of its own accord, if his successor were worthy (p. 60).

On the Mount of the Law stood the small church which at one time contained the relics of St. Katherine, and which continued to contain bodies of saints as late as 1384. Near it was the cavern in which Moses stood when the Lord passed (Sigoli, p. 82; Maundeville, p. 62). Beyond it was the small mosque which the Saracens sought in pilgrimage, and which to Antoninus was “an idol of abomination” (p. 168).

Fig. 20.—Sketch of convent surroundings about 1335.

The relative position of these buildings and sites is shown on the topographical sketch made by Jacopo, which is here reproduced ([Fig. 20]). On it we note the convent church with its tower, and we are told that inside the convent walls there “stood likewise a mosque with a tower of its own, from which the cazes, or priest of the Saracens, proclaimed the Mohammedan faith, a proceeding to which the kalogeri or monks could raise no objection, since they were under the dominion of the Sultan who would have it so” (c. 1335, p. 321). This mosque of the maladetta fede was noticed also by the party of distinguished Italians who came to Sinai from Cairo in 1384. These included Leonardo dei Niccoli Frescobaldo from Florence, Simone Sigoli from Venice, and a certain Giorgio di Messer Gucci di Dino, each of whom was attended by his serving man.

The sketch of Jacopo further shows the path leading up from the convent to the Mount of the Law “where the law was given to Moses,” with the chapel “where the Blessed Mary appeared;” the church of St. Elijah; and the mosque of the Saracens. There is also a garden with a fountain, and a zigzag path leading up to a higher mountain where “lay the body of the Blessed Katherine.” From the summit of this mountain Jacopo saw the Red Sea, and watched the ships that carried pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and other spicery from India. He also went the two days’ journey to Tur, which he called Elim, where he bathed in the Red Sea. Here he saw the place where the Israelites came out of the water, and remains of the Pharaoh, apparently bones, lying on the sea shore. In the belief that this was Elim of the Bible, he noticed that there were here, not seventy palm trees as stated, but ten thousand date palms, the produce of which the monks sold at a high price at Cairo (p. 237). From an Arabic source we hear that special attention was given to Tur in the year 1378, by Salah ed Din Ibn Gourram, grand vizier of Egypt.[267]

The number of pilgrims from Europe who visited Sinai is difficult to estimate. The guide who was engaged to conduct the Italians from Cairo to the convent in 1384, had taken pilgrims along this route seventy-six times (Sigoli, p. 15). The knights who wished to be enrolled as Knights of the Order of St. Katherine, hung up their arms in the convent church (Tafur: “dexe mis armis”), and received a badge which showed a broken wheel that was pierced by a sword. Some pilgrims noted the names and scutcheons of earlier ones, which, together with coats of arms, were scratched on the wall spaces.

The zeal of the pilgrims was responsible for further developments in the story of St. Katherine. Ludolf of Sudheim in 1341 sought the spot outside Alexandria where the saint was beheaded (p. 827); the Italians of 1384 identified the prison in which she was confined, the columns on which were placed the spiked wheels that broke of their own accord, and her dwelling place “where now stands the palace of the lamelech,” i.e. the emir of the Sultan (Sigoli, p. 90; Frescobaldo, p. 82). The columns which were of red porphyry were noticed also by Thomas of Swynburne, an Englishman and mayor of Bordeaux at the time, who paid a hurried visit to Egypt and Sinai in 1392, of which his companion, Briggs, wrote a short account.

And more than this. The oldest account of Katherine claimed for her royal descent. The Speculum of Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190-1264) gave her father’s name as Costus. Another line of tradition called him Constantius and made him into a king of Cyprus, where the monks of Sinai had possessions in the year 1216. A chapel dedicated to St. Katherine situated near “Salamina” or Constantia in Cyprus, was visited by Ludolf in 1341 (p. 826). In the year 1394 Niccolo de Martone, the Italian notary from Carniola, whose desire “to reach the dominion of the blessed Virgin in Sinai” took him to the East, went from Famagusta in Cyprus to Constantia, which in his estimation was built by Constantius, the father of St. Katherine. Here he saw the palace and the chamber, “now in ruins,” where St. Katherine dwelt, and near it her chapel, which many persons sought in pilgrimage (p. 632). From Famagusta he visited an island to which St. Katherine went at the suggestion of her mother, in order to consult a hermit regarding her marriage. His advice was that she should wed Christ, and in the night an angel appeared, who gave her a ring (p. 633). This is the first we hear of the mystic marriage of St. Katherine, which henceforth formed an incident in her legend and was further developed. The History of St. Katherine, which was written by the Augustinian monk Capgrave about the year 1430, described how a hermit named Adrian was sent to Alexandria by the Queen of Heaven. He took the maid into the desert where Christ appeared to her in a dream and gave her a ring.[268] This incident does not appear in the story of St. Katherine as told in the Legenda Aurea of Jacopo of Voragine, which was written about the year 1255. But the English version of the Golden Legend, which was printed by the Caxton Press about the year 1483, described the gift of an actual ring, further developing the story. For according to this account Costus, king of Cyprus and the father of the saint, was the son of Constantius, king of Armenia, whose second wife was Helena, the daughter of King Cole of Britain, and the mother of the emperor Constantine. Thus St. Katherine was linked up with the kings of Britain on the one side, and with the emperors of Rome on the other!

In the convent of Sinai no attention was given to these developments, and the Life of St. Katherine that was read in the convent confined itself to the facts related by Simeon Metaphrastes.