What’s happening at Egypt’s St Catherine’s Monastery?
A controversial court ruling over the ownership of the ancient monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai has caused outcry.
An Egyptian court ruling last week triggered an outcry across the Christian world.
The May 28 ruling concerned the ownership of the land of the ancient St. Catherine’s Monastery, nestled at the foot of Mount Sinai.
Rumors circulated on social media that the Egyptian judiciary had ordered the monastery’s closure, the confiscation of its property, and the eviction of one of the oldest monastic communities in the world.
For Eastern Orthodox Christians, the reports were nearly as traumatic and disturbing as if a Catholic read that a secular court had declared ownership of Vatican City.
The Egyptian government quickly challenged this interpretation of the court ruling. Nevertheless, considerable disquiet remains.
Why is St. Catherine’s Monastery so important? What did the court ruling say? How did Church leaders respond? And what’s likely to happen next?
The Pillar takes a look.
Why is the monastery so significant?
The fortified monastery on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and Gaza, dates back to the 6th century, when it was founded by the Roman Emperor Justinian.
Officially known as the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of St. Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, the institution was built around what monastic tradition holds to be the Burning Bush where God appeared to Moses in the Book of Exodus.
The monastery also contains the well where Moses is believed to have met his wife, Zipporah, and relics of St. Catherine of Alexandria, the 4th-century martyr associated with the Catherine wheel firework.
Among the monastery’s abbots was St. John Climacus, the author of the mystical treatise “The Ladder of Divine Ascent.”
The monastery, surrounded by mountains and desert, is home to ancient icons reproduced worldwide, including the 6th-century Christ Pantocrator and the 12th-century Ladder of Divine Ascent.
The monastery houses the world’s oldest continuously operating library, with around 3,300 manuscripts, including precious Christian texts in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. The most important manuscripts associated with the monastery include the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century Greek Bible no longer housed at the site, and the Syriac Sinaiticus, the oldest copy of the Gospels in Syriac.
The monastery also possesses a 7th-century charter, known as the Ashtiname of Muhammad, in which the Islamic prophet granted protection to the monastery’s inhabitants.
The monastery is a major pilgrimage destination for Eastern Orthodox Christians, especially from Greece and Russia.
It forms an autonomous Greek Orthodox Church known as the Church of Sinai. But it has a close relationship with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, whose Patriarch traditionally consecrates the Church of Sinai’s head, currently Archbishop Damianos.
What did the court ruling say?
In 1980, the Egyptian government asked property owners whose land was not already listed in an official registry to file declarations of ownership. St. Catherine’s Monastery filed 71 declarations, covering its chapels, gardens, and other parcels of land.
In 2015, the authorities in the South Sinai Governorate, which covers St. Catherine’s Monastery, turned to the courts in an effort to assert state ownership over the monastery’s plots of land.
In an effort to resolve the legal dispute, the monastery entered into discussions with the South Sinai authorities and also the Greek government, which takes a strong interest in the institution given it is part of the Greek Orthodox Church.
According to Greek media, a draft agreement recognized that the monastery building, its plots, and its churches were the property of the monastery belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church.
But according to Archbishop Damianos, the agreement was ultimately scuppered.
“Though we agreed on a text, they altered it and presented something entirely different,” he said.
On May 28, the Egyptian Court of Appeals issued a ruling widely interpreted as declaring the monastery state property, while recognizing the monks’ right to perform their religious duties at the site.
But the 160-page text was of such complexity that even legal professionals struggled to grasp it fully.
A spokesman said the Greek government was still processing the ruling five days later, “because it includes not only titles and explanatory opinions, but also extremely complex legal reasoning in the Arabic language.”
In a May 29 statement, Egypt’s State Information Service addressed what it described as “completely unfounded” claims about the court ruling.
It argued that the ruling “represents the first instance in which the legal status of the monastery has been regulated, with a clear affirmation of the preservation of its sacred standing.”
It said the court also affirmed the monks’ continued right to benefit from additional sites classified as natural reserves, as well as local religious and archeological sites.
But it noted that there were no ownership records for some uninhabited areas distant from the monastery.
“Consequently, these lands are considered state property,” it said.
How have Church leaders responded?
Among the first Church leaders to respond was Archbishop Elpidophoros, the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
In a May 29 statement, he said: “The recent judicial actions which threaten to confiscate the monastery’s property and disrupt its spiritual mission are deeply troubling. Such measures not only violate religious freedoms but also endanger a site of immense historical and cultural importance.”
“It is imperative that the Egyptian government honors its previous commitments to protect the monastery’s autonomy and heritage.”
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, led by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, said May 30 that it was “disappointed and saddened” by the ruling.
It suggested the court had “recognized the local monastic brotherhood only as having the right to use the monastery’s property,” calling into question the monastery’s long-standing ownership status.
“The Ecumenical Patriarchate appeals to the Egyptian government to preserve the monastery’s ownership status — an arrangement that Islam itself has respected and safeguarded for centuries — and to implement the recent agreement reached with the monastery,” it said.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem acknowledged the Egyptian authorities’ attempt to clear the air.
“The Patriarchate of Jerusalem will monitor the situation closely and will thoroughly look into the said court decision, and if needed, the Patriarchate will condemn and act upon any encroachment on the monastery or infringement over access to this holy site,” it said in a May 30 statement.
What’s next?
The day after the court ruling, the roughly 20 resident monks reportedly closed the monastery to visitors in protest. According to Orthodox media, the monks intended to remain within the monastery, praying for its protection.
The ruling also threatens to raise diplomatic tensions between Egypt and Greece, which have strong cultural and economic ties.
On May 30, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed St. Catherine’s Monastery in a phone call with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
The Egyptian president’s spokesman said “the call stressed Egypt’s unwavering commitment to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of St. Catherine’s Monastery, ensuring this status remains untouched.”
That was also the message delivered the same day to ambassadors from European countries in Cairo by Egypt’s foreign minister Badr Abdelatty. According to the State Information Service, he noted that “efforts will be made to reach a regularization agreement between the local authorities and St. Catherine’s Monastery.”
But Greek media argue that the Egyptian government’s protestations should not be taken at face value.
Nikos Meletis, a columnist for the Greek news outlet Proto Thema, wrote in a June 1 op-ed that the Egyptian authorities had “methodically let time pass without signing the agreement [with the monastery], waiting for the court’s decision.” He said they could now present the court ruling as a fait accompli to demand “drastic changes” to the text.
Meletis suggested the Egyptian side wanted to move the discussion away from property ownership rights by stressing its intention to respect “the religious character and sanctity” of the monastery.
He said the Greek side now had to decide whether to escalate the matter, using its considerable leverage over Egypt as the country’s primary advocate within the European Union, or accept that a new agreement must be forged in light of the court ruling.
Greece’s foreign minister Giorgos Gerapetritis will reportedly lead a delegation traveling to Cairo June 4. The involvement of such a high-ranking figure suggests the Greek government is serious about defending the monks’ rights, while seeking to maintain its strategic partnership with Egypt.
Thanks for reporting on this! I have many Orthodox friends who have been talking about this with a ton of anxiety and I didn’t know the whole story.
Thank you for explaining this. I have heard Orthodox expressing major concern and asking for prayers but I was having trouble understanding what was going on.