Footnote 2 – The Southern Sinai Exodus Route in Ecological Perspective

The monastery did not become known as St. Catherine’s Monastery until the 11th century. Originally, in the sixth century, Justinian had dedicated the church he built in the enclosure of the monastery to the Virgin Mary. St. Catherine was a martyr who had upbraided the Roman Emperor Maximinus for persecuting Christians. The emperor retaliated by beheading her. Her body and severed head were said to be miraculously transported by five angels to a peak near the Justinian monastery. Legend held that the angels watched over the priceless relics (her bones) for several hundred years, until their presence was revealed to the monks of the monastery, who joyfully carried her bones to their church and renamed the monastery in her honor.