Janet Soskice talk on 'Sisters of Sinai'

11.45am, Friday 12th March

An exhibition from the Archives on the history of the College and the Sisters of Castlbrae will be available to view in the Garden Room from 10.45am, and coffee will be served.

Janet Soskice will talk about her recent book 'Sisters of Sinai' on Friday 12th March in the Riley Auditorium at 11.45am.

The book tells the extraordinary story of the Scottish twin sisters, Agnes and Margaret Smith, who built and lived in Caslebrae towards the end of the nineteenth century. The sisters made one of the most important ancient manuscript finds of the age. Hidden in a cupboard beneath the monastic library at St Catherine's in the Sinai desert the twins discovered what looked like a palimpsest: one text written over another. It was Agnes who recognized the obscured text for what it was, one of the earliest copies of the Gospels written in ancient Syriac. Once they had overcome the stubborn reluctance of Cambridge scholars to authenticate the find and had lead an expedition of quarrelsome academics back to Sinai to copy it, Agnes and Margaret -in middle years and neither with any university qualifications - embarked on a life of demanding scholarship and bold travel.

This is the story of two remarkable women who, as widows, were undeterred in their spirit of adventure and who overcame insuperable odds to become world-class scholars with a place in history.