DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4592#0147
A LEGEND. 147
the range of mountains on this peninsula; but the for-
mer is a little over one thousand feet the highest, its
summit being about 8500 English feet above the level
of the sea. It takes the name of St. Catharine, from
the following legend, which the reader is left to be-
lieve if he can. I will give it in the words of Mr.
Stevens: " In the early days of the Christian Church,
the daughter of the king of Alexandria, became con-
verted. While her father remained a pagan, she tried
to convert him; but, indignant at the attempt, he cast
her in prison, where she was visited by the Savior,
who entered through the key-hole, and married her
with a ring which is now in the hands of the empress
of Russia. Her father cut her head off, and angels
carried her body to the top of this mountan, and laid
it on a rock. For centuries, no one knew where it
was deposited; the Christians believing that it had
been carried up into heaven, until about two centuries
ago, when a monk in the convent dreamed where it
had been laid. The next morning he took his staff and
climbed to the top of the mountain; and there, on the
naked rock, fresh and blooming as in youthful beauty,
after a death of more than a thousand years, he found
the body of the saint. The monks then went up in
solemn procession, and, .taking up the body, bore it in
pious triumph to the convent below, where it now lies
in a coffin with a silver lid, near the great altar in the
chapel, and receives the homage of all pious pilgrims."
Now, on the summit of this mountain, and over the
spot where this body was said to be found, stands a
small stone chapel, at present much dilapidated and
out of repair. In the centre of this chapel, the monks,
the range of mountains on this peninsula; but the for-
mer is a little over one thousand feet the highest, its
summit being about 8500 English feet above the level
of the sea. It takes the name of St. Catharine, from
the following legend, which the reader is left to be-
lieve if he can. I will give it in the words of Mr.
Stevens: " In the early days of the Christian Church,
the daughter of the king of Alexandria, became con-
verted. While her father remained a pagan, she tried
to convert him; but, indignant at the attempt, he cast
her in prison, where she was visited by the Savior,
who entered through the key-hole, and married her
with a ring which is now in the hands of the empress
of Russia. Her father cut her head off, and angels
carried her body to the top of this mountan, and laid
it on a rock. For centuries, no one knew where it
was deposited; the Christians believing that it had
been carried up into heaven, until about two centuries
ago, when a monk in the convent dreamed where it
had been laid. The next morning he took his staff and
climbed to the top of the mountain; and there, on the
naked rock, fresh and blooming as in youthful beauty,
after a death of more than a thousand years, he found
the body of the saint. The monks then went up in
solemn procession, and, .taking up the body, bore it in
pious triumph to the convent below, where it now lies
in a coffin with a silver lid, near the great altar in the
chapel, and receives the homage of all pious pilgrims."
Now, on the summit of this mountain, and over the
spot where this body was said to be found, stands a
small stone chapel, at present much dilapidated and
out of repair. In the centre of this chapel, the monks,