View source for Church of Sinai

The '''Church of Sinai''' is an [[autonomy|autonomous]] Greek Orthodox Christian Church whose territory consists of [[St. Catherine's Monastery (Sinai)|St. Catherine's Monastery]] (which is located on the Sinai peninsula at the foot of [[Mount Sinai]] in Egypt), along with several dependencies. The church is headed by an [[archbishop]] who is traditionally [[consecration|consecrated]] by the [[Patriarch of Jerusalem]] and also serves as [[abbot]] for the monastery. The current hierarch is His Beatitude, Archbishop Damian.

==History==
The Church of Sinai owes its existence to the Monastery of the Transfiguration (better known as [[St. Catherine's Monastery (Sinai)|St Catherine's Monastery]]). The monastery's origins are traced back to the Chapel of the [[Burning Bush]] that [[Constantine the Great|Emperor Constantine I]]'s mother, Helen, had built over the site where [[Moses]] is supposed to have seen the burning bush. Between 527 and 565, Emperor Justinian I ordered the monastery built to enclose the chapel. The monastery became associated with St. [[Catherine of Alexandria]] through the belief that her [[relics]] were miraculously transported there.

==Locations of interest==
*[http://www.egeriaproject.net/pigr_mon.aspx The Chapel of Our Lady of the Oikonomos, Sinai, Egypt]
* Monastery of the Temptation, Palestinian National Authority

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{{churches}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.oca.org/OCworldsinai.asp?SID=2 Contact information]
*[http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-bodypg-us.aspx?eccpageID=29&IndexView=toc "The Orthodox Church of Mount Sinai"] in ''The Eastern Christian Churches: A Brief Survey'' (2008) by Ronald Roberson, on the CNEWA website.

[[Category:Jurisdictions|Sinai]]
[[ro:Biserica Ortodoxă a Sinaiului]]