Sunday of St. John Climacus, Lent 2016

2 Comments

Sunday of St. John Climacus, Lent 2016

A pilgrimage to the cave of St. John.

Approaching the cave of Saint John, the silence of ages seems refracted by the soaring massifs extending the passage into an almost tactile iridescence. Evanescent shades of pink, blue, purple, red, and black granite - everything but gray - succeed one another, blended by the softly charged atmosphere into an impressionistic rendering of light. Read more....

2 Comments

Bride of Christ, St. Catherine of Alexandria

4 Comments

Bride of Christ, St. Catherine of Alexandria

For the Feast Day of the Bride of Christ, St. Catherine of Alexandria.

A graceful silver ring bearing the monogram of Saint Catherine of Alexandria betokens the most ancient of societies, its earliest membership predating Christianity itself. Presented to pilgrims at Mount Sinai by the monks of St. Catherine's Greek Orthodox Monastery, the ring signifies pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain – a custom whose preservation in the memory of local populations led the earliest ascetics to settle at the Burning Bush. Read more...

4 Comments

The Ladder of Heavenly Unity

Comment

The Ladder of Heavenly Unity

Continuing Orthodox monasticism’s oldest unbroken tradition, Sinai monks still liturgize, shoeless, over the roots of the Burning Bush. On the holy ground where Moses was commanded to remove his sandals – together with all earthly logic – monks turn diversity’s polarizing forces to unity – some of the ways St. Catherine’s Monastery brings Byzantium’s patristic spirit into the modern era as living tradition. Read more...

Comment

New Perspectives on the Ancient Biblical Manuscript

Comment

New Perspectives on the Ancient Biblical Manuscript

The British Library and Hendricksons have published a collection of essays that constitutes an important reappraisal of the history of the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the "most important books in the world," for it includes the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. One of the essays was written by Archbishop Damianos of Sinai on The Shepherd of Hermas and its inclusion in Codex Sinaiticus. Read more....

Comment