The Sinai Codex Theodosianus: Manuscript as Icon

Last night I had dinner with and attended a lecture by Fr. Justin (Librarian of the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai). The dinner was hosted by the nearby OCA parish and attended by a mix of local parishioners and people who drove down from Oklahoma City. After dinner we walked a few blocks over to the University of North Texas campus and listened to him give a lengthy lecture entitled "The Sinai Codex Theodosianus: Manuscript as Icon." For those unfamiliar, as I was, with this work, here a short description of the text the monks are working with, here's a synopsis:

It is comprised of selected lectionary readings and is written completely in gold. There are icons within written on backgrounds of gold as well with special polishing done to differentiate the halos and floor from the general backdrop. One odd note about them is that (for reasons unknown to current scholarship) all of them are written with their eyes looking off to the side instead of straight at you as is common.

It most probably came from Constantinople, but we don't know why it made its way to the monastery. A team of people worked on its construction and the cost accompanied with its making was staggering then and would be equally staggering now. The first letter of each section is larger than the rest, ornate, and completely unique while still matching in style with the rest of the codex. It was rarely used, but some sections do show use like the pages concerning the readings for Christmas. The well preserved state is a result of the constant levels of humidity and heat, the infrequency of its use, and the care given to it by the monks.

His talk was a mix of information about the codex, the theology of icons, his monastery, what it means to be a saint, the history of Constantinople and the Mt. Sinai area, and quite a bit more. The entire talk was accompanied by photos of the manuscript showing the cover, binding, organization of the text (a quite mathematical and systematic formula was used), icons, and unique musical notation lost to time. As interesting as the talk itself was, the 30 minutes of Q&A was equally enlightening and allowed some of the more dense material to make sense to Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike.



The information about the monastery is equally fascinating. It has existed since at least 550. Unlike Mt. Athos and other similar locales, women have always been allowed to visit. Until 1980 only about 20 people visited a year due to the remote nature of the monastery. With the advent of modern roads made for the Israeli military it is now much easier to visit with thousands of tourists and pilgrims visiting annually. It's hard to imagine over a thousand years of great silence and isolation now giving way to nearby hotels and monastery visits part of packaged vacations.

It was quite an event and the talks hosted by the North Texas Orthodox Missions continues through the 7th.