Abstract
This study examines the ties that expanded between Moldavia, Wallachia, and the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai between the 15th and 17th centuries under the guidance of Romanian voivodes, including Stephen the Great, Neagoe Basarab, and their heirs. Looking at the existing material and textual evidence, this study addresses the way in which the Romanian voivodes shaped their princely image and their gifts to the monasteries located beyond the borders of their domains, and especially to the monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. The monastery’s collection preserves several key texts and objects that elucidate aspects of patronage, royal identities, and orthodoxy among the Romanian voivodes. Their gifts to Sinai and other spiritual places (such as Mount Athos) had the collateral effect of contributing to the formation and promotion of significant forms of Byzantine spirituality in Moldavia and Wallachia, especially in the post-Byzantine period.
Keywords
Byzantine, donations, ideology, Moldavia, Mount Sinai, patronage, post-Byzantine, Wallachia
