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Mitrović Katarina, Queen Helen and Mount Sinai
In one of his lectures given at the University of Belgrade in February 1925, Tihomir R. Đorđević pointed out that the Serbian Queen Helen, with her sons, kings Dragutin and Milutin, had richly bestowed the Monastery of Virgin Mary at Sinai. On the trail of this information, the author has embarked on consideration of the data given by archbishop Danilo II in his work Life of Queen Helen. He knew Queen Helen well and was in a position to acquire reliable information about her life and work. According to him, Queen Helen had kept an epistolary friendship with the Orthodox clergymen in Jerusalem, Sinai, Rait and Mount Athos, going on for years until her death. Her letters were confessional in tone, as she disclosed her sins to the spiritual fathers and asked them for advice, edification and consolation. She dispatched the letters through trustworthy monks in her service. Together with these letters, the monks would carry rich donations to Sinai, Jerusalem, Mount Athos and Egypt. It is obvious from further text in his work that the donations consisted of books, priestly robes, golden and silver vases and chalices for divine celebrations. Queen Helen probably gifted them with icons as well, just as she had done with the Church of St. Nicholas in Bari or the Apostle See. Archbishop Danilo II included deliberations about the relations of Queen Helen with the Eastern Orthodox priests into the segment of her Hagiography, where he collected motifs of philanthropy manifested by acts of mercy. This is the only so far available and reliable information about the relations of that Serbian medieval queen and Mount of Sinai.
