St. Catherine's Monastery of Sinai Theme Day in Valamo
The Valamo Monastery will receive a rare guest this spring: Father Justin, librarian of the St. Catherine's Monastery of Sinai, will arrive in Finland and visit Valamo. With him, a window opens to one of the oldest and most significant holy places in Christendom – the area at the foot of Mount Moses in Egypt, where prayer has continued uninterrupted for over 1,700 years. There were hermit monks there as early as the 4th century, and an Orthodox monastery has been located there for over 1,400 years.
The St. Catherine's Monastery is the center of the Autonomous Orthodox Church of Sinai and is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The monastery is known especially for its Biblical location, ancient manuscripts, icons and art treasures. Father Justinos' visit offers a great opportunity to get to know the life of the monastery, its spiritual tradition and cultural layers - something that only a few have had the opportunity to experience on site in Egypt.
If you have ever visited the Monastery of St. Catherine, now is a nice opportunity to come and reminisce about your pilgrimage with others who have visited there.
A warm welcome to encounter the mysticism of Sinai in the peace of Valamo!
Father Justinos
Program:
12.00 Opening remarks of the day – Archimandrite Mikael, head of the Valamo monastery
After the opening
Guest Father Justinos, librarian of the St. Catherine's Monastery
Father Justinos will present the history and current life of the monastery and tell about its unique collection of books and manuscripts. Valuable early Christian manuscripts and works have been digitized using modern methods in recent years, which has aroused widespread international interest.
TT Pasi Hyytiäinen sheds light on the interesting history of the Codex Sinaiticus.
The Codex Sinaiticus is a manuscript of the Greek Bible written in the 4th century that ended up in Russia from the Monastery of St. Catherine and was sold to England after the First World War, where it is kept in the British Library.
The work is owned in whole or in part by four libraries, the British Library, the National Library of Russia, the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai and the Leipzig University Library, which established a joint project in 2002 for the research, digitization, transcription, preservation and publication of the work, with the aim of also publishing an electronic version of the Codex Sinaiticus.
14.00 Lunch (own expense), restaurant Trapesa
15.00 Old icons and art treasures of the monastery – Father Justinos
In addition to the apse mosaics, the monastery's art treasures include a unique icon collection, which includes over 2000 icons. The icons represent all centuries, from the 5th century onwards.
16.00 Pilgrims' memories of St. Catherine's Monastery – Markku Niemenlehto, Virpi Kaipainen and Eija Forsvik travelled to the deserts of Egypt led by nun Kristoduli and reminisced about their experiences.
17.00 Valamo tea table, restaurant Trapesa's red hall
An emotional moment with Valamo delicacies
The tea table includes: tea and raspberry jam, pickles with sour cream and honey, salmon pie, cabbage pie, dry cake, cookies, sweets and fruit.
18.00 Opportunity to participate in the service in the main church of the monastery.
IX hour. Vespers. Small post-vespers service and three canons.
The event will be held at the Valamo Cultural Center, where literature from the Valamo Monastery library related to the theme day will be on display.
Father Justinos' lectures are in English, otherwise the program is in Finnish.
Daily program: 25 €/ person (includes program and tea table)
Registration 8.5.2026 by: myyntipalvelu@valamo.fi or 017 570 1810
Also ask about accommodation!
center;">More information about the program: virva.suvitie@valamo.fi
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Check out the website of St. Catherine's Monastery https://www.sinaimonastery.com/index.php/en/ and the Codex Sinaiticus https://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/
Father Justinos will also speak at the Virtual Valamo Conference.
https://valamo.fi/a/19-09-2025/virtualinen-valamo--konferenssi%C2%A0-12-1552026
The conference and the Virtual Valamo project are funded by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation and the Major Cultural Projects grant.
https://kordelin.fi/
