Select Narratives of Holy Women : From the Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest

Agnes Lewis (1843–1926) was a biblical scholar credited with the discovery of a number of ancient manuscripts. This text from the monastic library of St Catherine, Mount Sinai, first published in 1900, is a collection of stories in Syriac describing the lives of saintly women including Pelagia and Eugenia.

The sisters Agnes Lewis (1843–1926) and Margaret Gibson (1843–1920) were pioneering biblical scholars who became experts in a number of ancient languages. Travelling widely in the Middle East, they made several significant discoveries, including one of the earliest manuscripts of the Four Gospels in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language probably spoken by Jesus himself. Their chief discoveries were made in the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai. This fascicule, a useful resource for scholars of Syriac, and originally published as part of the Studia Sinaitica series, is the text of a Syriac manuscript from the monastic library at St Catherine's. Transcribed by Lewis and first published in 1900, the manuscript recounts the tales of a number of saintly women including Pelagia, a rich courtesan who converted to Christianity, and Eugenia, a holy woman who lived as a man and became the abbot of a monastery.