Saint Catherine's holds a manuscript library considered second in importance only to the Vatican's, and one of its most famous ancient texts left the building in circumstances the monastery itself still disputes.
A library built over many centuries
The monastery's collection of manuscripts and early printed books, accumulated continuously since its founding, is widely regarded as the most significant collection of its kind after the Vatican Library, reflecting the monastery's status as one of the oldest continuously operating Christian monastic communities anywhere, having functioned without interruption since roughly the sixth century.
The Codex Sinaiticus dispute
In the nineteenth century, the German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf removed pages of the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Christian Bible, from the monastery's collection, eventually depositing the bulk of it in Russia and later Britain. The monastery has long disputed the circumstances of the removal, describing it as effectively a loan that was never returned rather than a legitimate acquisition, a dispute that remains unresolved.
As this entry's companion article covers
The monastery's unusual legal and ownership status, including the historical protection document known as the Ashtinameh attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and recent disputes over its status under Egyptian law, is addressed directly in this entry's companion article rather than repeated here.