Social media has witnessed a wide debate in the past few days over reports that the Egyptian authorities had closed the Monastery of St Catherine in South Sinai, built between 548 and 565 AD. It is worth noting that the monastery, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002, coinciding with the city of St Catherine winning the AFASU award in recognition of its role in promoting cultural and religious coexistence, is the only monastery that includes a mosque within its grounds, built in the seventh century AD to serve the region’s Bedouins working at the monastery.
Reports of the monastery’s closure circulated alongside details of a court dispute that has been ongoing for more than nine years, since Khaled Fouda, the former Governor of South Sinai, filed lawsuit No. (24 of 2015, Sharm El-Sheikh Total Civil), appealed under Nos. (226 and 228 of judicial year 32) before the Ismailia Court of Appeal. The lawsuit named Bishop Dimitrios Samartzis Damianos, in his capacity as Archbishop of St Catherine’s Monastery, and demanded compensation of EGP 5 million, in addition to the eviction of 29 plots of land, including crops and buildings, in favour of the governorate as compensation for their use extending over more than 1,500 years.
Citizens and specialists linked the reports of the closure of St Catherine’s Monastery to the announcement issued by Wael Mostafa, head of the Sinai Development Authority, on 27 October, regarding the completion of 90% of the “Great Transfiguration” project, which extends over an area of two million square metres between Mount St Catherine and Mount Moses. According to previous statements by former South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda, the project includes building a visitor centre, a peace plaza, a hotel, an eco-lodge and an administrative complex, under the supervision of the Ministry of Housing, the New Urban Communities Authority and the Central Agency for Reconstruction.
Over the past ten years, a legal dispute over the monastery’s land has escalated, despite the issuance of Ministerial Decree No. 85 of 1993, which registered St Catherine’s Monastery as an archaeological site and was published in the Egyptian Gazette, issue 241, on 23 September 1993, followed by Ministerial Decree No. 905 of 1997, which classified the monastery’s land among archaeological sites and was published in issue 111 on 21 May 1998.
St Catherine’s Monastery belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church. Since its founding it had belonged to the Egyptian Coptic Church, then its ownership passed to the Greek Church in the division by Emperor Justin II after the Council of Chalcedon, according to medieval history researcher Amgad Ezzat, speaking to Zawia3.
The lawsuit filed by the former Governor of South Sinai is not the first of its kind faced by the Archbishop of St Catherine’s Monastery, Father Dimitrios Damianos: it was preceded in 2012 by retired army Major General Ahmed Ragai Attia, founder of the Egyptian Sa’ka (commando) school and of the Front for the Defence of South Sinai, filing lawsuit No. 2784 of judicial year 17 against the Military Council, the Prime Minister, the Ministers of Defence, Tourism and Environment, the Governor of South Sinai and the Archbishop of St Catherine’s Monastery, demanding the removal of encroachments on archaeological areas and the retention of the names of the old areas. In his lawsuit, the retired major general accused the monastery’s monks of “seizing 20% of South Sinai’s land, and claimed that they had obliterated the original Springs of Moses and that the springs currently there are fake.”
In response, the website of the Orthodox Cultural Centre reported at the time that former MP and law professor Ehab Ramzy accused the former army general of forging papers concerning ancient churches in the monastery, claiming they had been built in 2006, and that 71 removal orders had been issued against antiquities in the monastery, considering them encroachments, among them Moses’ church, known as the Church of the Burning Bush.
A Ruling to Evict the Archbishop and Hand Over the Land
At its session on 23 May 2015, the court issued a preliminary ruling referring lawsuit No. 24 of 2015 to the Experts Authority of the Ministry of Justice, but the committee formed inspected only ten of the 29 plots, which are registered with the Ministry of Antiquities under ministerial decrees and cannot be owned.
The lawsuit took a new turn at the session of 5 December 2016, as it named the Minister of Antiquities as head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the South Sinai antiquities area, the St Catherine area, and the head of the Environmental Affairs Agency as the supreme head of the natural protectorates sector in South Sinai, and demanded raising the financial compensation claimed from the monastery’s archbishop from EGP 5 million to EGP 10 million.
The court referred the case to the experts’ office at its session of 25 February 2017, but the three-member committee formed by court decision was unable to inspect the monastery’s land because of the lack of data on lengths and boundaries, so the former Governor of South Sinai instructed the head of the General Survey Authority and the director of the South Sinai survey directorate to provide maps, survey plates and coordinates for the land.
Once again, the court ruled to refer the case to the experts’ office at its session of 31 October 2020, but retired army Major General Ahmed Ragai Attia, one of the parties to the case, died on 4 March 2021. The court again referred the case to the experts’ office at its session of 27 February 2022, and decided to reserve the case for judgment at its session of 21 May 2022, before extending the date for pronouncing the verdict to the session of 30 May 2022, during which the court issued a ruling evicting Bishop Dimitrios from the monastery and the 29 plots of land and handing them over to the governorate with the buildings and crops on them, as compensation for the use from the date of usurpation until the ruling, and ordering them to pay the costs.
According to Fathi Ragheb Hanna, lawyer for the Archbishop of St Catherine’s Monastery, he filed an appeal against the ruling evicting the archbishop and all clergy and workers from the monastery and handing it over to the governorate, relying in the appeal memorandum on Articles 130 and 131 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which confirm the nullity of the ruling because of the death of one of the parties, the late Major General Ahmed Ragai Attia.
Zawia3 tried to contact Fathi Ragheb Hanna, lawyer before the Court of Cassation and the Supreme Constitutional Court, in his capacity as the lawyer for the Archbishop of St Catherine’s Monastery and the person who filed the appeal against the ruling ordering the archbishop’s eviction and the monastery’s evacuation, but he did not respond to any of our calls or messages, while his office manager claimed that there was a publication ban in the St Catherine case and asked us not to address it. Meanwhile, an informed judicial source revealed to Zawia3 that the Public Prosecutor has not so far issued a decision banning publication in the case.
Accusations Against the Coptic Church
After the court ruling concerning the property of St Catherine’s Monastery was issued, the case continued in the courts away from local media coverage. Last August, a Greek news website drew attention in Egyptian Christian circles by publishing an article about what it described as the Greek Orthodox community’s concerns over some properties belonging to St Catherine’s Monastery. The article indicated that the Coptic Orthodox Church, as the main Christian community in Egypt, had a special interest in some of the monastery’s properties, with claims of a dispute between the two communities over the ownership of some properties.
The article called on the Greek government to intervene to secure the community’s historic properties and protect the monastery’s cultural heritage, which opened a debate on the legal and cultural dimensions of the St Catherine’s Monastery case among the different Christian denominations.
In July 2018, Egyptian lawyer Ehab Salah El-Batal, on behalf of Magdy Louis, had filed a lawsuit before the Administrative Court of the State Council demanding the cancellation of the accreditation of Greek monk Dimitrios Samartzis, known as Archbishop Damianos, as head of the Greek Orthodox community of South Sinai at St Catherine’s Monastery, and the selection instead of a monk born to Egyptian parents from the Greek Orthodox community in Cairo or Alexandria.
For his part, Archbishop Damianos, Archbishop of Sinai and head of the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St Catherine in Sinai, issued a statement last August commenting on the report published on 7 August 2024 on the “Vima Orthodoxias” website, in which he denied claims that Coptic Christians were taking control of the monastery or that there were any religious tensions.
The archbishop said in his statement that the relationship between St Catherine’s Monastery and the Coptic Church and the Pope is a close relationship of friendly cooperation, categorically denying any connection to the report and any involvement of the Coptic Church in managing the monastery’s properties.
Affiliation to the Greek Church
Coptic heritage researcher Shenouda El-Amir explains to Zawia3 that St Catherine’s Monastery was founded in the fourth century AD, and its founding dates back to the legend of angels carrying the body of the martyr Catherine from Alexandria to the monastery. However, in the sixteenth century AD, during the period of Ottoman rule in Egypt, the monastery’s administration passed, by virtue of charters, to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Greece, and has remained so for centuries to this day; the monastery is not subject to the control of the Greek Orthodox Church in Alexandria, although they belong to the same denomination. He added that in 2021 the court dispute began between South Sinai Governorate and the monastery’s administration over the ownership of the monastery’s land, on which the monks’ living quarters, churches and agricultural land stand, and some of this land belongs to the Ministry of Antiquities and the governorate has no right to claim it.
El-Amir stresses that throughout the history of the Coptic Church, it has never intervened regarding St Catherine’s Monastery or tried to control it, as a Greek news website recently rumoured, noting that the monastery houses archaeological treasures and rare manuscripts, including the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the two most important manuscripts of the New Testament in the world and one of the oldest manuscripts containing most of the books of the Bible, dating back to the fourth century AD, but when Orientalists found it they took it to their countries, and today it is in the British Library.
Although the court dispute over the land of St Catherine’s Monastery is still ongoing, visits by government officials to the monastery and their meetings with its archbishop and monks have been repeated in recent months: on 25 July, the monks of St Catherine’s Monastery received Hani Azer, the President’s adviser for engineering works, and on 22 July, Khaled Mubarak, Governor of South Sinai, received a delegation from St Catherine’s Monastery headed by Father Porphyrios, the monastery’s deputy, to congratulate him on taking office. They presented him with a letter of congratulations from Bishop Damianos, the monastery’s archbishop, and handed him a copy of the Covenant of the Prophet (Ahdname), a historic document attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, in which he enjoined Muslims to treat Christians well.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and an accompanying delegation visited the Wadi El-Deir area, the most important area of St Catherine, on 28 September, and met Father Porphyrios, the monastery’s deputy, Father Justin, the monastery’s librarian, and a number of the monastery’s priests and monks.
Hossam Sobhy, director general of antiquities for St Catherine and Feiran, reveals to Zawia3 that for hundreds of years St Catherine’s Monastery in South Sinai has held about 71 plots of land under its control without having ownership deeds for them, some of them churches, monks’ lodgings and rest houses, and most of them agricultural land from whose crops they live, with the rest of the produce distributed to the monastery’s visitors. However, some of this land is owned by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, and for more than ten years there has been a dispute between South Sinai Governorate and the monastery’s archbishop, who wanted to regularise the status of the land, while the governorate considers this land squatted and wants to reclaim it. He noted that the governorate had filed a lawsuit against the monastery until a court ruling was issued in 2022 against the monastery’s archbishop in favour of the governorate, but it is not a final ruling and can be appealed.
Sobhy stresses that no official letter or eviction notice has reached the archbishop of St Catherine’s Monastery and its monks, and that the monastery is open to visitors as normal, having received 200 visitors on Thursday, and that the St Catherine hotel is full of guests, considering that the reports circulated on social media about the monks being evicted and the monastery closed are completely untrue.
The director general of St Catherine antiquities explains that the monastery contains about 1,444 artefacts, ranging from manuscripts to movable objects, some of them registered with the Ministry of Antiquities, and that the monastery’s administration is Egyptian and affiliated with the ministry, and not under Greek administration as some rumour. However, the monastery’s 28 monks hold foreign nationalities, including 25 Greek monks, while the monastery’s archbishop holds both Egyptian and Greek nationality.
The Land Is Protected by the Antiquities Law
In the same context, Abdel Rahim Rihan, member of the History and Antiquities Committee of the Supreme Council of Culture and head of the Campaign for the Defence of Egyptian Civilisation, stresses that the monastery and the archaeological sites in the city of St Catherine do not belong to South Sinai Governorate, that they are protected by Antiquities Protection Law No. 117 of 1983 and registered as world heritage with UNESCO in 2002, and that the monastery was registered as a Byzantine monument under Ministerial Decree No. 85 of 1993, and belongs to the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Sector of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Regarding the lawsuit filed against the Archbishop of St Catherine’s Monastery, Rihan explains to Zawia3 that the plots of land in question, numbered 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25 and 28, are archaeological lands within the monastery’s precinct under Ministerial Decree No. 905 of 1997, published in issue 111 of the Official Gazette on 21 May 1998, while plots 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 13 and 29 lie on Mount Moses, which is subject to Antiquities Protection Law No. 117 of 1983 under Ministerial Decree No. 1069 of 2008. The same applies to plot 18 in the Farsh Elias area, within the precinct of the St Catherine and Feiran archaeological area in South Sinai, under Ministerial Decree No. 780 of 2010. As for plot 27, in the Prophet Aaron area, the Permanent Committee for Islamic and Coptic Antiquities issued a decision on 13 January 2009 subjecting it to the antiquities authority, under Ministerial Decree No. 905 of 1997, and plot 28, the monastery’s rest house, also lies within the precinct of the archaeological area of St Catherine’s Monastery, according to Ministerial Decree No. 509 of 1997 and the decision of the Permanent Committee for Islamic and Coptic Antiquities of 18 January 2000.
The antiquities expert points to the historic national role played by the monks of St Catherine’s Monastery and its archbishop, Father Dimitrios Damianos, after the 1967 setback and before the October 1973 victory, when he removed the flag of the Israeli occupation entity that they had placed on the monastery’s gate and replaced it with the flag of Egypt, which prompted Golda Meir, the occupation’s prime minister at the time, to interrogate him and detain him for three months before Britain intervened to secure his release.
For its part, South Sinai Governorate denied on its official page on Thursday what it described as rumours circulating about any threat to St Catherine’s Monastery or any plan to evacuate it, stressing its commitment to supporting the monastery and the governorate’s archaeological and religious landmarks.
The statement quoted Khaled Mubarak, Governor of South Sinai, as affirming the good ties with St Catherine’s Monastery, and saying that he had recently received a letter of thanks and affection from the head of the monastery, who is currently abroad for medical reasons, affirming the close relations with the governorate, and noting that there is constant communication between him, the monastery’s officials and the Greek ambassador to protect the monastery’s cultural and religious heritage as an important historical and religious symbol.
According to the South Sinai Governorate portal, St Catherine’s Monastery received 200 visitors on Thursday, including 156 of various nationalities, including France, Russia, India, Australia, Indonesia and others, in addition to 24 Egyptian visitors, while the monks are present in the monastery and living their normal lives.
Zawia3 wrote to Father Akakios, the secretary general of St Catherine’s Monastery, in an attempt to reach the monastery’s archbishop, Father Dimitrios Damianos, for comment on what is being raised about the case, but we learned that he is suffering health problems and recently travelled abroad for medical reasons. The secretary general informed us that he had conveyed our message to the archbishop, and we have not yet received his response to our questions about the case.
Commenting on the governorate’s statement, Egyptologist and dean of the College of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Monica Hanna, said that despite the attempts at denial, the matter of the ruling issued against the Archbishop of St Catherine’s Monastery is real: a first-instance ruling was issued in the administrative judiciary by a court of first instance ordering eviction, and the Ministry of Antiquities’ lawyer was absent from this session, but the ruling has not been implemented to date. She revealed in a post on her Facebook account that the Presidency has formed a committee within the Ministry of Justice to regularise the monastery’s status before the appeal hearing against the current ruling, and that negotiations on this are under way.
While the governorate denies having any plan to evacuate the monastery and expel its monks, the court dispute between South Sinai Governorate and the monastery’s archbishop has not yet been finally settled. While the former governor’s lawsuit considers the monastery’s land squatted and the governorate’s right, experts and officials of the Ministry of Antiquities stress that it is archaeological land subject to the Supreme Council of Antiquities, protected under Egyptian law and registered as world heritage with UNESCO. Although the case has not been settled, the situation remains as it is, the monastery is still receiving its visitors as normal, and the authorities plan to open the Great Transfiguration project in the coming period.
