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Christianity's First Centuries in Africa |
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| Outside In: Saint Catherine's Monastery and the Early Church in Egypt By Brandie Ratliff |
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 figure 1  figure 2 |
The church is a three-aisled basilica, supported
by six sets of columns. Both aisles are flanked along the outside
by a series of small rooms, the original function of which is unclear,
but they certainly functioned as chapels during the medieval period,
as evidenced by the testimony of pilgrims (Forsyth, 11; Grossmann,
190). Such chapels are not uncommon in the early Christian churches
of Palestine (Grossmann, 191 and n. 67). Moving from the small narthex,
the high-ceiled nave reflects the monumentality promised by the imposing height
of the facade. The apse is obscured by the seventeenth-century iconostasis.
Proceeding down the nave, the column capitals, almost a meter high,
carved from local granite and now painted green, come into view. They have
a rough quality unexpected in a Justinianic monument. Once beyond the
iconostasis, the sanctuary is visible. The carved marble plaques
are likely part of the original chancel screen, which would have been a low
wall separating the sanctuary from the nave, allowing an unobstructed
view of the apse. The synthronon, the rows of built benches, arranged
in a semicircular tier, is preserved; the clergy sat on these benches during
the liturgy. Encased in eighteenth-century marquetry, the original altar is
composed of a slab supported by six colonettes. To either side of the apse
are two chapels, which give access to the Chapel of the Burning Bush.
These spaces may have originally led into an open-air courtyard where
the Burning Bush would have been venerated. An offshoot from the
roots of the original bush stands behind the Chapel of the Burning Bush. The most striking feature of the church is the splendid sixth-century apse mosaic, showing the appearance of Christ on Mount Tabor, surrounded by the prophets Moses and Elijah and the apostles James, John, and Peter. Above, Moses loosens his sandals before the Burning Bush and receives the Law on Mount Sinai. The central image is framed by medallion busts of the twelve apostles and a group of Old Testament prophets. Longinus, the abbot of Sinai, is represented with a square halo in the right corner and the deacon John in the left corner. Between the Old Testament and New Testament scenes, in the triumphal arch, two flying angels present orbs to the Lamb of God. Beneath the angels are a pair of roundels without inscriptions, probably images of John the Baptist and the Virgin. The Transfiguration, one the major theophanies, or divine manifestations, of the New Testament, was ideally suited to Sinai. Moses and Elijah are doubly associated with Sinai. In the Old Testament, God spoke to them on the mountain. In the New Testament, we read: “And after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart: And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow. And, behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elias [Elijah] talking with him” (Matthew 17.1–3). In Christian and Jewish mystical writing, Moses is the paradigm of what can be achieved in the contemplation of God. As Christian pilgrims stood before the images of Moses, which are reflected in the holy sites that surround them, the beginning and the goal of the path that brought them to Sinai unfolded before them. The images signified what it was to be in communion with and to see God. In Christian exegesis, Moses’ transfiguration prefigures that of Jesus. At the moment of receiving the Law, “Moses was transformed to such a degree of glory that the mortal eye could not behold him” (Gregory of Nyssa, De Vita Moysis, 2.217, qtd. in Elsner, 109). |
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