Sunday, May 15, 2005

Article: The monk who would give us history

Parade magazine -- a staple in many Sunday U.S. newspapers -- contains an article on a monk who is digitizing materials at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai desert. A brief version of the article can currently be read online here.

The monastery is 1,700 years old. Its library contains 4,570 manuscripts (mostly illuminated), 7,000 early printed books, and 6,000 modern ones. Some of these works are off-limits even to the monks in order to keep them preserved. Father Justin, who is actually from Texas, received a grant that got him started on digitizing the materials so that they could be viewed by a wider audience over the Internet. He is now in search of additional monies in order to keep the project going.

Please note that the monastery's web site is underdevelopment. It will eventually be available in Greek, English and Arabic; however, the Greek version is being developed first.

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