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Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p. 149. |
Balconies to Monks'
Cells, Mar Saba
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The [Mar Saba] convent is considered by the Greeks almost a penal one, and
scandal says that all its inmates except the superiors have been sent hither for
heresy or other offences. Of heresy certainly they must be acquitted, so far as
their knowledge goes, for they are profoundly ignorant, and whatever their other
offences may have been, they are unwearied in their devotions. Every monk has to
attend the services seven times in the twenty-four hours, from 4 A.M. to
midnight. Only one-third of the sixty brethren are in holy orders, and many of
the lay brethren are unable to read. They are from Turkey, Greece, the
Archipelago, and a few Russians; but modern Greek is the language of daily
intercourse, and few understand Arabic. All are under a vow never to taste fresh
meat, and their diet is both meagre and stinted in quantity. Eggs are permitted
on Sundays only. On other days the allowance is a small brown loaf, a dish of
cabbage broth, a plate of olives, an onion, half an orange, a quarter of a
lemon, six figs, and half-a-pint of wine apiece. A little raki or spirits is
also permitted. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p. 151.) |
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Hermits' Caves in the Cliffs of the Kedron |
Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p. 155. |
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A monastic life is chosen, as one of the
monks here [at Mar Saba] told us, for the sake
of peace and of eating the bread of idleness,
and there is no training for their vow, nor
any thought of applying this life of the
religious to the advantage of the Church. Thus
while every Latin monastery in Syria is the
centre of an aggressive mission, the Eastern
Church does not even adapt her battalions of
celibates to man her defensive works. Ages of
Moslem oppression and the dense ignorance of
the local priesthood have done their work; and
while the truth has been obscured and the
written Word of God forgotten, she seems to
have lost even the desire to discover or
understand it. These poor monks have but one
amusement, and that is the feeding and
cultivating the various wild birds and animals
of the glen. In this they have been
marvellously successful. (Source: Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p. 151.) |
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Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 3, p.
232. |
View from the
North-Eastern Galleries, St. Catherine
Monastery |
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The ordinary mode of calling the fraternity to
prayers is by striking with a hammer a piece
of iron, like part of the tire of a wheel,
more or less bent, and suspended by ropes (see
[illustration]). A flat piece of granite, thus
suspended and struck with a wooden stick,
serves the same purpose, producing a ringing
sound . . . .in the lower stage of the great
bell-tower there is a long plank of wood
which, on being struck, can be heard all over
the convent. Bells are only rung on church
festivals and occasions of rejoicing, or to
show respect to some high dignitary . . . .The
Convent of St. Catherine belongs to the Greek
Church, and is presided over by a non-resident
archbishop, who is represented by a prior or
agent, but the affairs of the convent are
actually managed by an intendant. The monastic
rules are very strict, and, the convent is
said to be regarded as a kind of penal
settlement. Most of the monks are uneducated
men, and nearly every one practises some
handicraft, but their tools are of the most
primitive character. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 3, pp. 234, 238.) |
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Via Dolorosa Procession |
Source:
Photographs of Charles Lee Feinberg. |
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There is every reason to suppose that we
may place the regular constitution of the
monastic order at the close of the third
century, and that Egypt was the cradle of
monasticism in its Christian garb. Monasticism
was not the invention but the inheritance of
Christianity. The human mind seems always to
have had a desire to flee away to the
wilderness and be at rest. Retirement and
solitude, quite apart from any teaching of
Christianity, have again and again, at
different ages and in different climates,
suggested themselves as the safer conditions
under which frail man may be able to obtain
conquest over self, and attain to the
perfection of God. It does not matter whether
the result has been successful, or whether
men-who have thus retired from the world-have
lost sight of the discipline which God has
ordained for us by stationing us in the world.
The fact remains that to a variety of
dispositions, and under the most opposed
circumstances of life, separation from the
world has suggested itself as the only panacea
for the diseases of the soul. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 4, p. 75.) |
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See
St.
Catherine's Monastery,
Mar Saba,
Via Dolorosa,
Psalm 23, or
Shepherds and
Flocks |
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