Saint Catherine’s Monastery – A Sacred Place and Its Bedouin Guardians
In the valley beneath Mount Sinai, the stone walls of Saint Catherine's Monastery rise like a fortress against the desert. For nearly fifteen centuries, monks have prayed here, copied manuscripts, and guarded relics. But the story of this monastery is not only written in Greek, Latin, and Arabic manuscripts. It also lives in the oral traditions of the Bedouin tribe, the Jebeliya, who have served as its guardians, workers, and storytellers across generations. A Monastery Rooted in History Commissioned by Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century, the monastery was built to protect the holy site of the Burning Bush, [...]