DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0297
280
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
They rise like giant twin brothers, towering above
every other; and the only thing which detracts in
the slightest degree from the awful supremacy of
Sinai, is the fact that Mount St. Catharine is some-
what the highest. The legend is, that in the early
days of the Christian church, the daughter of a
king: of Alexandria became converted. 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 Saviour, who entered
through the keyhole, and married her with a ring
which is now in the hands of the Emperess of Rus-
sia. Her father cut her head off, and angels car-
ried her body to the top of the mountain and laid
it on the 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 at the convent
dreamed where it had been laid. The next morn-
ing 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 proces-
sion, and taking up the body, bore it in pious tri-
umph 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 pil-
grims.
It was nearly dark when I returned to the con-
vent ; and in no small degree fatigued with the la-
bours of the day, I again threw myself upon the mat
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
They rise like giant twin brothers, towering above
every other; and the only thing which detracts in
the slightest degree from the awful supremacy of
Sinai, is the fact that Mount St. Catharine is some-
what the highest. The legend is, that in the early
days of the Christian church, the daughter of a
king: of Alexandria became converted. 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 Saviour, who entered
through the keyhole, and married her with a ring
which is now in the hands of the Emperess of Rus-
sia. Her father cut her head off, and angels car-
ried her body to the top of the mountain and laid
it on the 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 at the convent
dreamed where it had been laid. The next morn-
ing 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 proces-
sion, and taking up the body, bore it in pious tri-
umph 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 pil-
grims.
It was nearly dark when I returned to the con-
vent ; and in no small degree fatigued with the la-
bours of the day, I again threw myself upon the mat