| OCR Text |
Show 2 Mount Sinai, of Biblical fame since the time of the Prophet Moses and the Ten Commandments, became ultimately the home of innumerable monks and hermits in the Christian era. Then in the year 525 A. D,, Emperor Justinian built a home for those holy men, later identified as the Monastery of St. Catherine, an early Christian martyr of the city of Alexandria, whose body is still enshrined in the Cathedral altar. The Monastery became well-known as one of the chief places of pilgrimage in the Middle East, and it was patronized by popes and patriarchs of Christendom as well as royal and princely benefactors from the four corners of the globe. The monks of St. Catherine came from all parts of the Byzantine Empire, and a tradition of learning and art developed in their community. Thus a tremendous accumulation of treasures of the highest order grew within its precincts and became the object of universal interest in our time. Many expeditions were conducted to it with a view of bringing some of these treasures within reach of scholars throughout the world. Most important amongst them were the Mfc. Sinai Expedition of 1950 and that, of 1958-60. The first, conducted by the Library of Congress, was partly led by a present member of the Faculty of the University of Utah for microfilming some of its most important manuscripts in twelve languages (Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Georgian, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Polish, Slavonic, Latin, Turkish, and Persian). Two million pages of priceless ancient writings were recorded on the microfilm and are now available at the Library of Congress. The same Utah Faculty member, lecturing in America afterwards, drew attention to other treasures, the magnitude of which had long been forgotten. These included some three thousand |
