Saint Gregory of Sinaiti

Ivan Ivanovich Sokolov, Master of Theology, Associate Professor St. Petersburg. Theological Academy. Gregory of Sinai is an outstanding Byzantine ascetic and writer. He was born in the town of Kukule, near Klazomen in Asia Minor, in the sixties of the 13th century, from wealthy parents. During the reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos (1281–1332), Gregory was captured by the Turks, but was ransomed by Laodicean Christians and retired to the island of Cyprus, where he lived in the same monastery. A little later, he went to Mount Sinai to take monastic vows at a local monastery (hence called Sinaite) and, after three years of ascetic labors, retired to Jerusalem, and then to the island of Crete, where from the monk Arseny he learned the principles of monastic asceticism in the form of work and contemplation. Then Grieg. went to St. Mount Athos, visited the local hesychastiriums and settled in the town of Magula, where he built himself a hesychastirium and gathered disciples. In his life Grieg. carried out the beginning of the so-called hesychast teaching (see especially about it) and was one of the outstanding theorists of this teaching. Stay Grieg. on Athos continued until the Turks invaded this mountain (about 1305), and then the ascetic traveled to Sinai, Thessalonica, Chios, Lebanon and Constantinople. Here Emperor Andronikos Palaiologos learned about him. From the capital Grieg. went to the city of Sozopol and, having found a secluded place here in the desert of Paroria, founded a monastery here, which then became a major point of the ascetic-contemplative life of not only Greek, but also Slavic monks. From his monastery, Gregory Sinaite traveled to Sozopol, Constantinople, Athos and Adrianople, and returning to Paroria, he completely improved his monastery, with the material assistance of the Bulgarian Tsar Alexander. The ascetic died here in the forties of the 14th century. Meaning of Grieg. The history of Byzantine-Eastern monasticism consisted in the fact that he contributed to the strengthening and development in the East of the active-contemplative ascetic ideal and was one of the authoritative preachers of the so-called. hesychast teaching. In view of the fact that Grieg. spent most of his life traveling, implementing the principle of Byzantine wanderers - φεύγε, σιώπα, ήσύχαζε, he did not have the opportunity to fully devote himself to literary activity and therefore left only short ascetic writings. The largest of them consists of 137 chapters and is inscribed as follows: “Various words about commandments and dogmas, threats and promises, and also about thoughts, passions and virtues, about silence and prayer.” The essay contains a collection of edifying reflections on these subjects, loosely connected with each other. In addition, short works are known with the name of Gregory of Sinaite: “On silence and prayer”, “On silence and two types of prayer”, “Instructions to hesychasts” and “Chapters (seven) of ascetic content”. In the first work, Gregory, by the way, convinces ascetics to read the works of John Climacus, Maximus the Confessor, Simeon the New Theologian, disciple of Nikita Stifat, and Philotheus the Sinaite. Some of Grieg's creations. remain unreleased. 1) Gregory’s works were published by Migné, Patrologia graeca, t. 150. Comp. Philokalia in Russian translation, vol. V. Moscow. 1889. 2) The Life of Our Father Gregory the Sinaite, Like the Saints. Based on the manuscript of the Moscow Synodal Library, it was published by I. V. Pomyalovsky. St. Petersburg 1894. This life was compiled by a student of Grieg. Patriarch Callistos of Constantinople. Its analysis was made by I. Sokolov in the magazine Minist. Nar. Enlightenment, 1896, July. pp. 180–190. The Slavic text of the life was published by P. A. Sirku. 3) P. A Sirku, On the history of book correction in Bulgaria. T. 1. St. Petersburg. 1899. 4) K. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur. Munchen. 1897.