Goldwork Embroidery

The most prominent such dedications are undoubtedly holy vestments and metalwork artifacts, used in public worship. The Orthodox clergy retained all the privileges they had earned under the reign of Byzantine emperors, and the jurisdiction of the Great Church expanded to cover all Orthodox people in the Ottoman empire; the clergy thus consisted of numerous priests, who most of all required the appropriate vestments.

The archives of the monastery of Saint Catherine contain detailed records of the lavish vestments donated by traveling monks who had endured great danger and persecution to bring them over from Orthodox lands, or even other countries, such as Austria, “Nemzia”, or Hungary, where communities of wealthy Greeks were to be found.

These artifacts can be grouped into three categories: vestments donated for the absolution of sins, bequests and, in rarer instances, direct purchases. The monk, who is dressed in the humble robes of work and prayer all day long, should be lavishly vested when approaching the Divine Gifts. Such is the commandment of God to Moses that refers to vestments “ of gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen” destined for “his brother Aaron and his sons to serve as priests” (Exodus, 28). Moreover, priestly vestments are also called for by an emperor’s decree attributed to the founder of the Sinai monastery.

The Sacristy has seven gold-embroidered vestments from the monastery collection on display, in two distinct groups. The first one includes six priestly vestments, namely the sakkos, omophorion, orarion, mitre, epigonation, and epitrachelion with symbolic decorations. These probably were created in Crete, where thriving gold-embroidery workshops could be found during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and where the monastery kept dependen- cies, or in eighteenth century Constantinople, made by the renowned weaver Despoineta. The second one includes an Epitaphios to cover the reliquary of Saint Catherine created in Vienna, a city closely linked with the activity of Greek merchants during Ottoman times, as well as a center of Baroque art.

A comparison of post-Byzantine works of art with the artifacts of the latter group highlights the deep sense of spirituality of post-Byzantine art in contrast to that of the Reformation. These few display items also reflect the significance that the monastery had across the Orthodox world. The enduring vision of the Bible and Byzantium impressed on pilgrims by this holy landscape is now complemented with these specimens of religious art that possess spiritual beauty and emphasize the splendor of worship. These luxurious works of art recall to memory the expensive myrrh offered to the Lord by Mary, the sister of Lazarus. MTh