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February 1, 2011

The Chapel of Saint Tryphon at Mount Sinai


The Chapel of Saint Tryphon occupies the upper storey of the structure standing in the midst of the monastery garden. It was constructed in 1888, and is distinguished by its simplicity and neoclassical profile. The masonry is crowned by a horizontal cornice and parapet, while the western and eastern ends are adorned by decorative gables in the form of inverted keels. Saint Tryphon is the patron saint of gardens, and on his feast day every year, February 1, a priest blesses holy water and reads the Prayer of Saint Tryphon, which invokes the protection and blessing of God upon the garden for the coming year.

The area below the chapel contains the monastery ossuary. Outside are six graves, and when a member of the community passes away, the bones that have been in the cemetery the longest are taken up and placed in the ossuary, to clear the grave for another burial.

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