Is Egypt’s Government Trying To Take Over Christianity's Most Important Monastery?
(ANALYSIS) Much of the Christian world, especially the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, has been roiled by reports that an Egyptian court has mandated that St. Catherine's Monastery be taken over by the government.
This issue is especially explosive because St. Catherine's is arguably Christianity's most important monastery — but the situation also appears to be complex.
This great monastery lies in the Sinai desert at the foot of what church tradition holds is Mount Horeb, also called Mount Sinai, where God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses. It was built in the sixth century during the reign of the Emperor Justinian when the area was part of the Roman/Byzantine Empire.
It is an enthralling place. Apart from its connections to God's revelation at Sinai, one of the trees within its walls is reputed to be the burning bush from which God spoke to Moses and it is also said to contain the Well of Moses.
Beyond these spiritually significant sites, it also houses one of the world’s oldest libraries, and its collection of ancient documents is unrivaled. One text long held there is the Codex Sinaiticus, a fourth-century manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament and the oldest complete copy in the world of the New Testament.
Even apart from these treasures, its icons include the earliest known surviving depiction of Jesus Christ as Pantocrator, ruler of the world, dating from the sixth century. In this icon, perhaps reflecting then recent ecumenical councils on Jesus’ nature, Christ’s features on his right side represent the qualities of his human nature, while his left side represents his divinity. Many who have seen it, including me on my visit there, remark on how the icon's captivating gaze follows and challenges you as you move.
Given this superlative religious heritage, its status has long been a significant issue. This is complicated by the fact that, because of its origins in Byzantium, it is a Greek Orthodox monastery, and its status is subject to ongoing negotiations between the Egyptian and Greek governments, discussions which continue into 2025.
A draft agreement that would have ended the prolonged disputes over property rights was agreed to in late December 2024 between the province of South Sinai and Archbishop Damianos, the monastery’s legal representative. It states that the parties agree that the monastery —including its buildings, plots, churches and related buildings — constitute the property of the monastery belonging to the Greek Orthodox Doctrine. The monastery retains autonomy in its internal, administrative and religious affairs. The abbot would oversee all these activities while cooperating with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities for conservation of buildings.
This agreement was directly referenced by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s visit to Athens last month. However, by the time of the Egyptian Court of Appeals decision some six months later, this agreement has not yet been signed, and this necessarily arouses suspicions in a region where suspicion is rampant but also often justified.
Because St. Catherine's was built long before the current Egyptian state came into being — and before many deeds, titles, permissions and zoning issues — the legal status of the area can be murky. The immediate cause of present concerns is a legal case brought by the government of South Sinai, the Egyptian province in which St. Catherine's is situated, challenging the monastery’s ownership of 71 disputed plots. The court's decision was issued on May 28.
Egypt’s Office of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have both stated that the court decision has been widely misunderstood and denied that it calls for a change in St. Catherine's status: “The Presidency of the Republic would like to affirm its full commitment to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of St. Catherine’s Monastery and to ensuring that this status is not violated. The Presidency affirms that the recent court ruling consolidates this status. The court ruling is also consistent with what the President of the Republic emphasized during his recent visit to Athens on May 7.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the court clarified three categories of property:
"First, the Monastery of Saint Catherine, its affiliated archaeological sites, its spiritual value, religious significance, and the monastery’s associated cemeteries aren’t infringed.
“Second, although there are some additional sites for which contracts had been signed with local authorities — despite their classification as natural reserves — the court ruling, in recognition of the spiritual and religious value of the monastery, has approved the continued right of the monastery’s monks to benefit from those areas, as well as from the religious and archaeological sites within the region.
“Third, the judicial ruling referred to the existence of some remote areas within the natural reserves that are completely distant from the monastery and uninhabited, for which no ownership or possession documents exist. Consequently, these lands are considered state property.”
If the Egyptian government's statement is accurate, there might be little to fear — although the reference to presumptive state ownership of lands that lack documentation from over a millennium ago is especially troubling.
According to the monastery’s legal representative, Christos Kompiliris, the gardens around which the monks live were excluded from the ruling, but the surrounding agricultural lands that had for centuries sustained the monastery have all been transferred to the state.
“In other words, the monastery will be left essentially without property,” Kompiliris said.
Meanwhile, the Greek government has been alarmed but so far has issued cautious statements: “Pending the full review of the court decision, the two governments will continue discussions in the immediate future to resolve the issue through an institutional framework, in line with their shared understanding and the agreements reached privately and announced publicly during the recent visit of the Egyptian president to Athens.”
A spokesman for the Greek government stated that it was still processing the 160-page court ruling five days later, “because it includes not only titles and explanatory opinions, but also extremely complex legal reasoning in the Arabic language.”
Thus, the status of the monastery remains contentious. However, unlike the Turkish government's conversion of the magnificent Hagia Sophia church, another of Justinian's projects, into a mosque, St. Catherine's ties to Greece bring a significant international element, something the Egyptian government itself emphasizes.
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, and on June 2 a Greek government delegation traveled to Egypt to express its concerns.
The Egyptian president's office affirms "the importance of preserving the close and fraternal relations that bind the two countries and peoples and not compromising them.” The Foreign Ministry has “underscored the paramount significance of avoiding any harm to the close, fraternal, and historical relations that bind Egypt to the friendly Hellenic Republic, which have spanned across centuries.”
Egypt’s Sisi will not want to be embarrassed by having his statements in Athens undercut. And, given Egyptian-Greek common interests, especially on vital oil and other mineral rights in the Mediterranean, also subject to recent agreements, there is great pressure to resolve the matter amicably.
Paul Marshall is the Wilson Professor of Religious Freedom at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, director of the Religious Freedom Institute’s South and Southeast Asia Action Team, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and author of over 20 books on religion and politics. His latest book is “Called to be Friends: Called to Serve.