Dear Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery,
Abbot of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, with Elder Pavlos.
To begin with I wish you a Good New Year with health even though the coronavirus will trouble us for a little while yet. Our hope, however, and our faith in the All-Powerful Triune God Who appeared on Mount Sinai will strengthen us to find ourselves in health, bodily and spiritually, fulfilling His will according to His Holy Commandments.
This is the happiness and hope in which we, the Monks of St. Catherine’s in Sinai pass our lives. At the same time, however, we implement the human laws designed to protect public health that are demanded by the covid 19 pandemic with its variant mutations. Thus we are obliged to take precautions not only with communications and interactions amongst ourselves, but with respect to the people who wish to visit this holy place as pilgrims in order to find rest for their souls from the problems of daily life. Thus we are required to keep the monastery gates closed at least until the coming summer.
Crumbling wall by the Burning Bush.
Consequential to this, inevitably, is the cessation of many kinds of support offered by pilgrims. Curtailed, as a result, are both our philanthropic support of the local inhabitants of the area and necessary preservation of ancient monastery structures. This situation has worsened, following recent rains, to the point of structures collapsing, as for example, the wall surrounding the Burning Bush. We also need to complete repairs to the monks’ rooms, and to improve water tanks and systems in the garden that provides some of our fresh produce. Support is also needed for medical-pharmaceutical care of the fathers and employees of the Monastery, as well as medical equipment for the Monastery’s small medical clinic. Metochia (branch churches) and old hermitages of the Monastery would also profit by the assistance of our friends, which in certain cases has been offered by them in the past.
Of course there are larger works that would entail higher expenses, such as one involving the interior buildings on the Justinian wall of the Monastery’s eastern wing. This is where the flour mills and storerooms are located, the well of Saint Helen, and the very ancient granite oven that was used for the loaves of the Monastery fathers and all the surrounding hermits. This would be an appropriate location eventually for the museum, “The Bread of Life” featuring antique seals from the Artoclasia Service of the Five Loaves and the liturgical prosforo bread, as well as related implements once used for bread baking.
Roof in need of repair (can you spot some visitors?)
Another task concerns the ongoing effort to create a repository for housing the bulk of the Monastery’s icon collection, all those works not currently occupying their places in the Katholiko (cathedral church), chapels, or on display in the rotating exhibits of the museum where they are preserved from damage by ideal climactic conditions and other measures. Worth noting is that the Sinai icon collection is considered the most important in the world thanks to the offerings of pilgrims and illustrious personages from the sixth century, as well as to the devotion and love of the monks throughout the centuries.
Of course these larger projects of the Monastery and similar ones will require the appropriate time frame for the necessary studies and approvals from the Egyptian Ministry of Archaeology.
It would be our great pleasure to learn of the interest of donors of independent means who would wish to engage with these specific cultural projects inside the Monastery. The present interval which finds us without pilgrims presents a rare opportunity to delve into ventures like the aforementioned, whose significance can only be considered vital in light of the history and continuing life of the Monastery.
With many thanks and good wishes to all, together with prayer I recommend observance from the human standpoint of the indicated measures for avoidance of the Covid-19 virus. We look forward to informing you at a later date of the resumption of visits and pilgrimage when the Monastery reopens its portals.
† Archbishop of Sinai, Damianos
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To support the Monastery’s repairs and other needed projects, you can donate on the FMSM support page. All donations are forwarded in full for the monastery’s needs, as the staff is fully volunteer.
