Skip to content
Orthodox Atlas

Autonomous Church of Sinai

Archbishop of Sinai, Pharan and Raithu · Mount Sinai · est. 1575

An autonomous archdiocese centred on the Monastery of St Catherine, under the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The Autonomous Church of Sinai consists of the Monastery of St Catherine at the foot of Mount Sinai and its dependencies, one of the oldest continually inhabited Christian monasteries in the world. Its abbot, the Archbishop of Sinai, Pharan and Raithu, is consecrated by and remains under the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, while the community governs its own internal affairs. It keeps the Old (Julian) Calendar and the monastic fasting typikon.