Help Us Save Saint Catherine's Monastery and Honor a 1,400-Year-Old Covenant of Peace
To the participants in the International Initiative for the Preservation of the UNESCO Status Quo of the Sacred Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai, Saint Catherine’s
As the Archbishop and Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine, together with all the Fathers of the community, we extend our heartfelt thanks and blessings for the divine consolation we received upon hearing of the international initiative to gather signatures in support of preserving the uninterrupted tradition of at least 1,800 years of our ascetic life—of prayer and service at the foot of the God-trodden Holy Peak of Mount Horeb. It is here that, according to tradition, from the early 3rd century A.D., the first monks fled persecution and gathered near the site of the Burning Bush and the Well of Moses.
We perceive your initiative as a gift of the Holy Spirit, especially as it was made known to us on the feast of Holy Pentecost—when the Holy Spirit illumined the twelve Apostles simultaneously, inaugurating the earthly ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ.
At Sinai, Moses spent 40 years at the foot of Mount Horeb, and there, before the Burning Bush, he encountered the presence of our Lord. Later, from the Holy Peak, he received the Law of God directly. Similarly, for
three years, the Apostle Paul—after his conversion from persecutor to servant of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus—retreated to this same
Biblical “house of God, Mount Sinai,” before returning to Jerusalem to meet the other Apostles.
God’s philanthropic will was revealed a third time when, according to multiple historical sources, Muhammad himself ascended the Holy Peak in mid-June 623 A.D. (during the first month (Muḥarram) of the second year of the Hijra), accompanied by all his disciples as a pilgrim. Upon descending, he delivered the Deed of Covenant—known as the Achtiname—to our predecessors, the Sinai Fathers, who had by then already upheld a monastic tradition of more than 400 years both within and beyond the Justinian Fortress, built by the emperor and founder of Hagia Sophia.
This document, called the Achtiname, expressed the personal will (“عهد†/ ʿΑhd”) of the Biblical “God of Sinai” addressed to all the rulers and Nation of Muhammad, establishing a sacred, earthly law (“ميثاق†/ Mīthāq,”) protecting the lifestyle of the Sinai Fathers within God's biblical “house”—and by extension, all Christians. In it, God’s will was articulated through a series of commands mandating the protection of Christians by the followers of Muhammad, as a tangible sign of obedience to the divine Will until the end of time.
In 737 A.D., Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph after Muhammad, confirmed the Achtiname and elaborated it further to safeguard Christians
and their holy sites in Jerusalem. The legacy of the Sunni caliphs’ fidelity to the Achtiname continued until 1904, when Sultan Abdul Hamid II
ratified the election of Porphyrios II, my third predecessor, affirming once more the binding nature of this divine covenant.
May the merciful God always bless those who uphold His divine Will.
We earnestly ask for your continued solidarity in this honorable,
just, and unwavering struggle—a struggle for faith and for truth.
† Damianos
Archbishop of Sinai, Pharan, and Raithos On behalf of all the Fathers of Sinai