Father Justin's Blog

I took friends to see the Chapel of Saint Anne. We left at 5:00 AM. The sun rose as we were on the trail.

On Friday, Father Michael and I went to the Chapel of Saint Panteleimon for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.

We rode camels to the last camel stand. All I could see was an expanse of black, but the Bedouin and the camels could see the path in the dark. The first light of day was shining on the horizon as we reached the end of the camel trail.

The mountains became more visible as we descended to the Basin of the Prophet Elijah.

New cedar trees take the place of the old one that had stood there for centuries.

The chapel at the summit of Mount Sinai visible in the distance.

The path to the chapel.

The peak of Mount Saint Catherine in the morning sunlight.

Father Michael celebrated the Divine Liturgy. This was especially meaningful for him, since his father was named Panteleimon.

Afterwards we visited the olive groves at the Chapel of the Forty Martyrs. Father Michael knows the names of all the varieties, and how to cultivate each tree so that it bears the best quality olives. Sometimes gazelles leap over the wall and jump into the lower branches of the tree to eat the tender shoots. The Bedouin who care for the trees must be on their guard.

The 1871 bell tower in the last sunlight of the day.

The marble medallion is inscribed, Ἐπὶ Γρηγορίου Σκευοφύλακος τοῦ Ζακυνθίου Νοεμβρίου 24, 1871. “By Gregory Skevophylax from Zakynthos November 24, 1871.” The bell tower was dedicated the day before the feast of Saint Catherine. The medallion is carved with a depiction of three keys. The Skevophylax is responsible for all the keys to all the chapels and storerooms of the monastery, and to all the chapels in the outlying area.

The bell in the second tier was cast at the Samgin Brothers bell foundry in Moscow on June 27, 1870. It is 90 centimetres in diameter and weighs 32 poods (524 kilos, or 1156 pounds).

In the high mountains above the monastery, the first sign of a new day is a band of rose coloured light on the horizon. This was the time when the Myrrh-bearing women went to the Tomb, ‘as it began to dawn’, when the restrictions of the Sabbath were now at an end. They found the Tomb empty, and heard from the Angels, Ἠγέρθη οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε, ‘Ηe is risen, he is not here’.

The Chapel of the Burning Bush, the easternmost chapel of the Sinai basilica.

Ὅτι δὲ ἐγείρονται οἱ νεκροὶ καὶ Μωϋσῆς ἐμήνυσεν ἐπὶ τῆς βάτου ὡς λέγει Κύριον τὸν Θεὸν Ἀβραὰμ καὶ τὸν Θεὸν Ἰσαὰκ καὶ τόν Θεὸν Ἰακώβ· Θεὸς δὲ οὐκ ἔστιν νεκρῶν ἀλλὰ ζώντων· πάντες γὰρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν.

Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. (Luke 20:37-38)