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Show NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE. MONDAY, DECEM Mount Sinai Monastery Where Expedition Will Study Ancient Documents St. Catherine's Monastery is barely discernible at the base of these forbidding cliffs of Mt. Sinai in Egypt. An expedition of the American Foundation for the Study of M a n will sail from Philadelphia today to conduct research at the monastery Side entrance to the monastery which is believed to be the oldest Christian monastery in the world. The structure is at an Herald Tribune-Acme altitude of 4.000 feet. The expedition, intends to microfilm more than 500.000 documents for the Library of Congress . Sinai (Continued from page one} I Congress has decided to go head with the stupendous task f filming every page. A n imme-late use of the film will be its Tutiny for source material in le preparation of a new critical pparatus for the Greek New estament. A n international group I scholars, headed by Ernest Cad-lan Colwell, president of the Uni-ersity of Chicago, has undertaken lis work. Obtaining permission to film the iceless library involved pronged negotiations with King Fa-mk I of Egypt; Athenagoras I, itriarch of the Greek Orthodox nurch, and numerous others. uthorization was finally received om Porphyrios III, archbishop Mt. Sinai and superior of the onastery of St. Catherine. Arabic Data Included Professor Kenneth W . Clark, of uke University, who is now in rusalem. will represent the Li-ary, especially in recording the reek manuscripts which are his ecialty. Associated with him will Professor Aziz Atiya, vice-dean the arts faculty at Farouk Uni-rsity in Alexandria. Dr. Atiya 11 be in charge of the large col- .'tion of Arabic documents which fleet the relationship between e monastery and a succession of uslim potentates over a period centuries. M u c h of the actual .otography will bf done by Wal- •e Wade, a member of the Li-ary staff. Major importance of the St. therine's collection is its value Biblical textual criticism. Al- 'St 100 years- ago the German •'"-El scholar. Tischendorf. Herald Tribune News On WMCA New York Herald Tribune news is broadcast every hour on the hour from 7 a. m. through 11 p. m. over W A ' I C A - 5 7 0 on your dial. brought the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest manuscripts of the Bible, from the monastery. The Codex was acquired later by the Russian government and sold in 1933 to the British Museum for £100,000. In 1914 the Prussian Academy of Sciences sponsored a photo-raphic expedition to St. Catherine's but months of intensive work came to naught when all of the equipment and most of the records were captured by the British during World War I, and subsequently destroyed. Mt. Sinai, located on the Sinai Peninsula, land bridge between Africa and Asia, was a sacred center thousands of years ago. It was there that Moses is supposed to have seen the burning bush and it was upon the mountain's peak, according to the Bible, that he received the Ten* Commandments. Monastery Set-Up About 200 years after the death of Christ some early Christians established themselves on Mt. Sinai to escape Roman persecution. A monastic life was organized and he monks sent a deputation to j St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great, begging protection against the desert tribes. Workmen were sent at once to build a small fortress with a church inside at an altitude of about 4,000 f,eet up the side of the moTuhntea ionri.g inal tower and church were erected between 330 and 335 A. D „ making it the most ancient Christian monastery known. Two centuries later it was found necessary to enlarge the building in order to accommodate the large number of monks that had gathered at Mt. Sinai. Designation of the monastery as St. Catherine's followed discovery of relics of the saint and their subsequent transportation to the original site. St. Catherine was one of the early martyrs of Chris tianity. Her skull and one hand have been preserved. Both are in the monastery. Many other Christian monasteries were destroyed during periods of recurrent religious warfare but St. Catherine's was never disturbed because, it is said, M a homet instructed his followers to leave the monks free to perform their religious duties and to respect their property. These instructions were followed by the caliphs who succeeded Mahomet and documents concerning - this' later relationship form one of the most prized sections of the monastery's library. Some time during the tenth century, the monks of St. Catherine's built a mosque within monastery boundaries for the. use of Mahometan neighbors and of the many pilgrims who traveled across the peninsula to get to Mecca. |
