A series of state-level meetings between Greece and Egypt appears to have calmed the long-running dispute over St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, with Greek and Egyptian ministers affirming that the monastery will remain an active religious entity.
“Our shared intention is for the monastery to continue its unbroken journey under the 15-century-old status quo,” said the Greek foreign minister George Gerapetritis in Athens in early August, according to the Orthodox Times.
Gerapetritis, who reached agreement in the dispute with the Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty, added: “I am convinced Egypt will continue to honour its long-standing tradition of respect for all religions and denominations, which it has cultivated throughout history.”
Abdelatty made similar comments earlier this year. According to Egyptian media reports, he reiterated Egyptian President Fattah El-Sisi’s own affirmation of the monastery’s religious character.
Moses and the burning bush
Built between 548 and 565 on the site where Moses is said to have encountered the burning bush, St Catherine’s is the oldest monastery in the world that is still operating. It has the largest collection of icons in the world and is second only to the Vatican Library for its extensive collection of manuscripts.
Because of its great age, it predates the schism between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, remaining part of the Greek Orthodox Church despite being located in Egypt. The Church’s ownership of its lands was put in place under the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over both Egypt and Greece, and remained effectively untouched following the dissolution of the empire more than a century ago.
Dozens of law suits
In 2012, however, the South Sinai governing authority began legal proceedings to formally take control of the site. It opened 71 court cases, one for each plot of land owned by the monastery, according to Christos Kobiliris, an Athens-based lawyer who has been acting on behalf of the Church.
In May this year, Kobiliris says, the two parties were about to reach a settlement, but just days before its announcement, the Egyptian court for South Sinai issued a ruling that differed from the expected state-level compromise that would have preserved the monastery’s right to all 71 plots. Instead, the ruling gave Egypt the right to roughly two-thirds of the land, while also guaranteeing the monks’ right to worship and to administer the monastery building.
Despite the mixed ruling, many in the Greek Orthodox Church took it as a sign that the monastery was under threat. The farmland around the monastery affords its 26 monks access to key resources such as water and olives, which they need for their own survival as well as to support the Bedouin community who rely in part on the monastery. Equally important is the implication for the monks’ prerogative to remain in Egypt.
Vulnerable monks
“The ruling gives the monks the right to use the 29 religious plots, but not to own them,” Kobiliris explains. “The monks only have an annual temporary residence permit—only the archbishop has citizenship. That means without having ownership and without also having citizenship, the monks are vulnerable, and the Egyptian state could decide against renewing their residence permits.”
The larger issue here is the Great Transfiguration Project, a state-led, megaproject launched by President El-Sisi in 2020. The aim of the initiative is to redevelop the southern Sinai Peninsula as a giant tourist hub, with the construction of luxury hotels, housing ventures, leisure activity areas and shopping complexes. Planned infrastructure, such as a road network, water supply and the new St Catherine’s Airport, will link the area with the Sinai beach resorts of Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh.
Five-star site
Egyptian media outlets have reported that one of the new hotels will be built on Mount Sinai, directly above the monastery. According to local reports, at a formal ceremony in March 2024 at the monastery, the Egyptian prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, signed an agreement with the German hospitality company Steigenberger Hotels to open a five-star hotel in 2025.
The Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs did not respond to a comment request; the Steigenberger Hotels group declined to share further information.
In the context of the large-scale and state-led development project already under way, the Church appears to mistrust the soothing statements from both Greece and Egypt. Fears remain that the land and monastery will be confiscated, and that the monastery will simply become a museum, which the Egyptian state would be able to exploit as a tourist site. Should that happen, it would mean an end to the 15 centuries of continuous use as a Christian monastery that gained it designation as a World Heritage Site in 2002 from Unesco. For St Catherine’s, there is a lot on the line.