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This year, Archbishop George of Cyprus visited Sinai for the feast of Saint Catherine, together with Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia (Church of Greece), and Archbishop Nicholas of Hermopolis (Patriarchate of Alexandria). Archimandrite Ieronymos, Patriarchal Exarch in Athens, represented the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The church was filled with a multitude of pilgrims. Archbishop Damianos was present, but did not take part in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, for reasons of health.
The Holy Table was adorned with Holy Gospels bound in metal, and silver ripidia.
All the lamps were lit over the reliquary of Saint Catherine, which was adorned with embroideries.
The blessing of the loaves at vespers. Each loaf was stamped with a seal depicting Saint Catherine.
Kolyva was offered in honour of the saint.
At the beginning of the Divine Liturgy.
At the conclusion of the service, the relics of Saint Catherine were carried in procession around the church. Prayers were said for the members of the community, the pilgrims who had come for the feast, and for the members of the community who have gone to their rest.
At four o’clock in the morning we begin Mesonyktikon, the Midnight Office. The icon of Christ on the iconostasion is lit by a single icon lamp. He is vested as the Great High Priest, and crowned as the King of Kings. At the four corners of His throne are the four living creatures beheld by the Prophet Ezekiel — the angel, the lion, the ox, and the eagle. In the early Church, these became symbols of the Four Evangelists.
On the final leaf of Greek 165, the scribe wrote two supplicatory prayers. The third inscription is a colophon that reads,
Θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον Ἰωάννου πόνος Ῥόσου τὸ ἐπίκλειον, τάχα καὶ θύτου.
Sinai manuscript Greek 968 is an Euchologion copied by Bartholomaios Rhosos in Crete in 1426. In the colophon he signs himself τάχα καὶ ἱερέως. This is literally ‘perhaps even a priest’, but it has the meaning ‘perhaps not even worthy of the name of priest’.
A θύτης is ‘a sacrificer, one who offers the sacrifice’. With the parallel above, we can translate τάχα καὶ θύτου literally, ‘perhaps even one who offers the sacrifice’, with the meaning ‘perhaps not even worthy of the name of one who offers the sacrifice’.
We could then translate the colophon of Greek 165, ‘The gift of God a labour of Ioannis surnamed Rhosos, perhaps not even worthy of the name of one who offers the sacrifice’.
Having written Greek 165 on his native Crete, Ioannis Rhosos emigrated to Italy where he created beautiful manuscripts of classical Greek texts for wealthy patrons in Rome, Florence, and Venice. He died in Italy in February, 1498.
Sinai Greek 165 is a manuscript of the Four Gospels written on parchment in the middle of the fifteenth century. It is a small manuscript for personal reading, but it also contains rubrics to allow it to be used as a lectionary in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.
The Gospel of Saint John ends on folio 421 recto,
Ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ, ὃσα ἐποίησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς, ἅτινα ἐὰν γράφηται καθ’ ἕν, οὐδὲ αὐτὸν οἶμαι τὸν κόσμον χωρῆσαι τὰ γραφόμενα βιβλία. Ἀμήν.
’And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.’ (John 21:25)
The scribe has tapered the text, with ornaments to either side, and written the concluding ‘Amen’ in the form of a cross. He then added, Τέλος τοῦ κατὰ Ἰωάννην ἅγιον εὐαγγέλιον, ‘The end of the holy Gospel according to John.’ Beneath this, he drew a cross as an interlocking knot.
The oldest olive tree in the Sinai garden has been there for centuries. Its trunk has a massive girth. The oldest olive trees produce the best oil.
The first olives have been harvested and pressed for oil. Many of the trees are in remote locations, and the olives must be brought out by camels to the nearest road.
The olive trees at Arbain are old, and the olives produce a rich oil.
The olive trees at Bostane are not as old, and these produce less oil.
The olives are fed into a mill, which turns them into pulp. This is stirred for a set time, after which the oil is separated through a centrifuge.
Fresh olive oil has a mineral fragrance and a rich, complex taste.
Father Michael is in charge of the olive oil production. Friends of his entered the Sinai olive oil into international competitions, where it won gold medals for its flavour and health qualities.
Manuscript Greek 205 is a lectionary containing the Gospel readings appointed for each day. A large and imposing volume, it was created in Constantinople in the third quarter of the eleventh century.
Folio 114 recto displays a headpiece enclosing the title, written in letters of gold. The Gospel according to Luke.
The headpiece is filled with ornamental flower petals enclosing peacocks and other birds, rabbits, and small dogs. After almost a thousand years, the colours are still fresh and beautiful.
The first English translation of Saint Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho was made by Henry Brown, Vicar of Nether-Swell in Gloucestershire. It was printed in two volumes in Oxford in 1755.
This beautifully bound copy has a dedicatory inscription on the title page of the first volume, “G H Wheler from the Revd Thomas Wills.” Granville Wheler was a clergyman of the Church of England. He lived at Otterden Place, in Faversham, Kent, England. In 1729, he was the first to prove that electricity can be conducted, for which he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Granville Wheler died in 1770, and his library was dispersed the following year. In 1774, Thomas Wills married Selina Margaretta Wheler, third daughter of Granville Wheler.
The holy apostle Paul wrote of Christ as the New Adam. ‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive’ (I Corinthians 15:22).
Saint Justin Martyr writes of the Virgin Mary as the New Eve. By her obedience, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word’ (Luke 1:38), she undid the disobedience of our first mother. The Dialogue with Trypho is thought to have been written between the years AD 155-160.
Sinai manuscript Greek New Finds Minuscule 134 is an incomplete copy of the Ladder of Divine Ascent. It is written on parchment, and has been dated to the tenth or eleventh century. Saint John Climacus concludes his great work with a quotation of the last verse of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, Νυνὶ δὲ μένει τὰ τρία ταῦτα· πίστις ἐλπίς αγάπη· μείζων δὲ πάντων ἀγάπη, ‘And now abideth these three: faith, hope, love; but the greatest of all is love.’ (I Corinthians 13:13)
When two Greek words share a common central letter, they can be written in cross form. Below, the scribe has written (on the left), ὅπλον καλόν, ‘A good shield’ (a reference to Ephesians 6:11). To the right, he has written, Ἰησοῦ σῶσον, ‘Jesus save us’. And in the centre he has written τρίπλοκον ξύλον ὀραῖον θέαμα, ‘Threefold Wood, wondrous vision’. The Cross was made from cedar, pine, and cypress.
A little later in the morning, the bell tower is in full sun, and the sunlight begins to reach the mountains behind.
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