Church of Sinai

The Church of Sinai is an autonomous Orthodox Christian church whose territory consists only of St Catherine’s monastery which is located on the Sinai peninsula at the foot of Mount Sinai in present day Egypt. The church is headed by an archbishop who is traditionally consecrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

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History

The Church of Sinai owes its existence to the Monastery of the Transfiguration which better known as St Catherine’s Monastery. The monastery’s origins are traced back to the Chapel of the Burning Bush that 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.