The importance which was secured to the convent reacted on the standing of the bishopric of Pharan, the representative of which seems to have removed to the convent. When Peter, patriarch of Jerusalem, (524-544) summoned his bishops to a synod in 538, Photius, bishop of Pharan, who was close upon seventy years of age, was “unable to leave Mount Sinai,” which suggests that he lived there. Stephen of Cappadocia, mentioned above, Dulcetius and Zosimus were deputed to represent him. We again hear of Zosimus as one of three monks of Sinai, whom Apollinaris, the orthodox or Melkite patriarch of Alexandria (550-568), summoned to Alexandria. Of these he consecrated Theodor bishop of Leontopolis, an unnamed monk, bishop of Heliopolis, and Zosimus bishop of Babylon (Cairo). But Zosimus had no taste for the episcopate, and soon returned to his cell in Sinai.[208] Likewise do we hear that Gregorius, who had presided over the monks in Sinai, was chosen to succeed Anastasius, bishop of the see of Antioch who was evicted in the year 569. According to information provided by Evagrius (593), he had there been besieged by the Kenite Arabs.[209] The country generally seems to have been at the mercy of the Arabs, which resulted in the abandonment of the hermitages, while it added to the prestige of the convent. About this time the convent became the home of a young monk who was always silent. He was the only surviving son of the emperor Maurice, and was saved by his nurse when all the other sons were put to death by Phocas (602-608).[210] When he died his body disappeared. “Perhaps it was carried by God to the realms of the living,” was the verdict of the monk Anastasius (no. 29). The last bishop of Pharan we hear of was Theodor, who proposed the so-called monothelite modification of the monophysite doctrine, hoping thereby to secure re-union with the Church. In its interest he went to Constantinople, where he was honourably entertained by the patriarch Sergius (610-638), who impressed Pope Honorius (625-638) in Theodor’s favour. Objection was, however, raised to the new doctrine by the monk Sophronius, who later became patriarch of Jerusalem (634-638), and disapproval of it was expressed by the Lateran Synod of 649,[211] and by the Sixth General Council of Constantinople in 681. In the Wadi Feiran lie the ruins of a convent and a church of some importance which were described by the _Ordnance Survey_ (i. 210), and are without doubt the remains of the episcopal seat of Pharan. CHAPTER XIII MOHAMMAD AND ST. KATHERINE