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figure 1
figure 2
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A more reliable source regarding the founding
of the monastery seems to be Eutychius, an Egyptian who became patriarch
of Alexandria in the tenth century (Mayerson, 134). According to
Eutychius, “when
the monks of Mount Sinai heard of the receptive disposition of Emperor
Justinian and that he delighted in building churches and monasteries,
they came to him and complained that the Ishmaelite Arabs [Bedouins]
injured them by devouring their provisions, and destroying their
places (of habitation)” (Annales,
qtd. in Mayerson, 137–38). He describes a monastic establishment
at Mount Sinai surrounded by a protective wall, mentioning nothing
about a military installation or military strategy. Despite being
several centuries removed from the establishment of the monastery,
Eutychius seems to have been better informed about the topographical
and political conditions of the sixth-century Sinai Peninsula (Mayerson,
137–138). The
heavy reliance on Procopius’s account of Justinian’s motives,
to the exclusion of other historical sources, has led to a misunderstanding
of the monastery’s importance in the defense of the borders of Byzantium.
Justinian’s
building of the monastery is better understood within the context
of his extensive church building campaign across the Empire. Hagia
Sophia in Constantinople (532–37 A.D.) and San Vitale in Ravenna
(completed 546–48
A.D.) are among his most magnificent efforts. Though Justinian
and his architect fashioned a fortress that provided Sinai’s monastic
community defense against the occasional raid by local tribes,
it was not meant to defend the empire’s borders.
With the establishment of Justinian’s
monastery in the sixth century, Sinai’s monks gained ecclesiastical
independence and international prestige. Prior to the founding
of the monastery, the monks of Sinai were subordinate to the bishop
of Pharan, who in turn was subordinate to the patriarch of Jerusalem.
When Justinian built the monastery, he issued a bull that raised
Sinai’s
bishop to the level of Pharan’s,
increasing Sinai’s autonomy (Dahari, 19–20). By this time, the
monastic community at Sinai was known throughout the Christian
world, and Western leaders offered support. In 600 A.D., pope Gregory
the Great sent a letter to John, the abbot of Sinai, congratulating
him on his quiet and solitude, and promising supplies (Chitty,
170). By the eleventh century, and possibly earlier, the monks
were receiving monetary support from the dukes of Normandy (Glaber,
book 1:21, 37). Wandering monks who came to Sinai from across Christendom
likely promoted the monastery’s
reputation abroad. The monastery drew monks from such diverse places
as Rome, Byzantium, Cilicia, Mesina, Pelusion, and Pharan. John
Klimax (before 579–ca. 650 C.E.), who was a hermit near the monastery
and later became its abbot, cemented Sinai’s prestige. His treatise, The
Ladder of Divine Ascent, became the most popular book, after the canonic
religious books, in the Eastern monastic tradition (Dahari, 23). |
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