SINAI MONASTERY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18286, 3 January 1934, Page 11

SINAI MONASTERY

ESTABLISHED IN 525 A.D.

AUSTRALIAN’S VISIT

Mr. F. S. Rochstein, who was ft lieutenant in the Imperial Camel Corps during the Great War, stayed at tne Sinai Monastery of St. Catherine lor 10 'jrhe trip to the monastery, about 180 miles from Suez, occupied 10 days. It is shunted 2000 ft. up Jebel Musa (Mount of Moses). The top of Jebel Musa is 4Cooft. higher, with some 4000 steps cut into the side of the mountain. The imposing granite chapels are a feature of the monastery. There are several of them including those of St. James, St. Anne, and St. Helena. There is an almost entire absence of wood in the construction of the chapels. It is recorded that Justinian established the monastery about 525 A.D. Mr. Rochstein stated that another Codex (Syrian, lie thought), is still at the monastery, which had never bocn sacked, probably because of its inaccesibility.. There were at the monastery 100 monks, all Greeks, when the Imperial Camel Corps . survey, .party was there. They did not speak English. The monastery garden had tall cypress trees, olives, grapes, oranges, and the familiar white mulberry. There were no vegetables. The monks lived in a very primitive fashion. They did not eat meat, the diet consisting! almost entirely of meal. Mr. Rochstein referred to a huge vault, which, ho said, contained the remains dt all the prelates and monks since the establishment of the monastery. The remains of thoso of higher rank were encased. ... . . ‘‘My most vivid impression is of the majesty and grandeur of the huge granite edifices,” said Mr. Rochstein. “And to attain the summit of Jebel Musa was weil worth while, because the view from there is one that will live for ever in my memory.”