Gregory of Sinai

Life events

1. Born

   Gregory was born in Smyrna, in western Asia Minor, probably in the 1260s.

2. Other

   As a young man Gregory was captured by Seljuk Turks and subsequently ransomed to Cyprus, displacing him westward and interrupting whatever early religious formation he had begun.

3. Tonsured

   After his ransoming to Cyprus, Gregory became a monk at Saint Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula, the foundation that would give him his identifying epithet.

4. Educated

   Gregory relocated to Crete, where he studied the practices of hesychasm — the tradition of contemplative inner prayer — under a monk named Arsenios.

5. Pilgrimage — 1310

   In 1310 Gregory arrived at Mount Athos, settling at the Skete of Magoula near Philotheou Monastery and remaining on the Holy Mountain until 1335, where he became the principal transmitter of hesychast practice in the Athonite milieu.

6. Exiled — 1335

   Increasing Muslim raids on Athos drove Gregory and a group of disciples to leave the Holy Mountain around 1335 and seek refuge in the Bulgarian Empire, where they came under the protection of Emperor Ivan Alexander.

7. Other

   Under Ivan Alexander's patronage, Gregory founded a monastery near Paroria in the Strandzha Mountains of southeast Bulgaria, which became a primary centre from which hesychasm spread into Serbian and Bulgarian ecclesiastical life.

8. Died — 1346

   Gregory died on 27 November 1346 in the mountains of Paroria, near the present-day village of Zabernovo, Bulgaria.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Five works by Gregory are included in the Philokalia in Greek, covering commandments, doctrines, stillness, and prayer — including 137 texts and shorter collections on signs of grace and delusion. (likely)
• Gregory is credited with being instrumental in the emergence of hesychasm on Mount Athos in the early 14th century, having brought the tradition from Crete where he learned it from the monk Arsenios. (likely)
• Patriarch Kallistos I of Constantinople, one of Gregory's own disciples, composed a biography of Gregory around 1351, five years after his death; this text remains a primary hagiographical source. (likely)
• Gregory's disciples included Nicodemus of Tismana, Patriarch Kallistos I of Constantinople, Romylos of Vidin, Theodosius of Tarnovo, Gregory of Sinai the Younger, and Gerasimos of Euripos — a network that spread hesychasm across the Slavic Balkans. (likely)
• Gregory's early life was interrupted by capture at the hands of Seljuk Turks; his eventual ransoming to Cyprus set the geographic trajectory of his monastic formation across Cyprus, Sinai, Crete, and Athos. (likely)