Builder and persecutor

Al Ahram Weekly

AMIDST raids, looting, and murder by Justinian's troops in Egypt, the emperor gave orders in 530 for Egyptian builders to be sent to Sinai to construct a fortification to protect the original chapel built by St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, on the site of the Burning Bush. He despatched Wallachians from Bosnia to serve the monks as servants and guards, and it is certain that he also sent his finest craftsmen to construct a large new basilica, the Church of the Transfiguration. We know this because foundation inscriptions in Greek on three of the wooden beams of the nave of the church bear the names of Justinian, Theodora, and the architect Stephanos.