Saint Gregory the Sinaite

THE FATHERS OF ORTHODOX MONASTICISM

The Life of ST. GREGORY THE SINAITE


Icon by Photios Kontoglou

SAINT GREGORY THE SINAITE

Reposed 1346

Commemorated August 8th

TROPARION, TONE 5

Dismissal Hymn: Plagal of First Tone

ADORNED WITH SANCTITY OF SOUL, as a pure vessel of divine vision, thou didst prove to be a reflection of the angelic life. Wherefore, thou dost shine forth spiritually with the radiance of the virtues, O our father Gregory, thou boast of Sinai and Athos; and thou dost guide us unerringly unto the salvation of our souls.


THE DIVINE GREGORY was born in Asia Minor in a small place called Kukula. It lay near Clazomen (by Smyrna). His parents were rich and, what is most essential, virtuous. He was given a good education in pagan philosophy and especially in the truths of sacred Scripture. This was in the reign of the elder Andronicus Paleologus. The Turks were then overrunning Asia Minor and plundering the villages. Among others they seized St. Gregory's village, which was Christian, and together with his parents and relatives he was led away into captivity to Laodicea, where by the mercy of God they were given the permission by the barbarians to visit the Church of the Laodicean Christians. The Laodiceans were touched by the unfortunate plight of their brothers. In order to lighten their heavy yoke they begged the Turks to give the captives their freedom and they offered them money as a ransom. The infidels were won over by the silver and the captive Christians received their freedom and the right to go wherever they liked. Then the divine Gregory went to Cyprus. In a short time he had attracted the attention of the people of Cyprus, and by his natural and acquired, interior and exterior perfections he made almost all love and respect him. For he was by nature goodlooking, and his interior beauty surpassed his exterior.

God, Who knows those who are His (II Tim. 2:19) and Who assists them in all good, arranged for the divine Gregory to settle on the Island of Cyprus with one virtuous monk living in silence. After a short time this monk clothed him in the initial angelic Schema. Under his direction St. Gregory soon became an expert in the monastic life. From here St. Gregory went to Mount Sinai in search of greater labors. There he received the great angelic Schema. In a short time he surprised and astonished the ascetics there by his almost bodiless, angelic life. His fasting, vigils, all-night standings, constant psalm-singing and prayer were beyond description. It seemed as if he were quarrelling with nature, wishing to make his material body immaterial, so that, amazed at his struggles, the ascetics there usually called him the bodiless one. But I am at a loss to know how to write about the root of all virtues, his obedience and profound humility, lest it should seem to the easy-going that I am telling a lie, writes the compiler of St. Gregory's life (Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople). But as it would be a sin against the truth itself to remain silent about it, I must relate what I heard from his most devoted and sincere disciple Gerasimus. According to the words of this blessed Gerasimus, the divine Gregory carried out every service appointed to him by the superior without the least delay and with all zcal, always imagining to himself that God was watching his work. At the same time, in spite of all his obediences he never omitted his usual prayers. This was his ordinary practice. After receiving the superior's blessing in the evening, he went to his cell and shut the door, and there his kneelings, psalmody, raising of his hands to God and aspiration of his whole mind to Him continued until the wood sounded for Orthros. With the first stroke of the wood he was the first at the door of the church. Having come to church he never went out until the service had finished; he was the first to enter the church and always the last to leave it. His food consisted of a small quantity of bread and water, just enough to keep him alive. The duty of cook was assigned to him. For more than three years he toiled in this heavy obedience. Who can worthily praise his extraordinary humility here? He always thought that he was serving not men but angels, and the place of his service he honored as the sanctuary of God and an altar. It is necessary to say here that the Saint was extremely skilled also in calligraphy. With all his bodily occupations he never gave up his spiritual studies. In the reading of Holy Scripture and other pious books he probably spent as much time as any of the fathers there. He surpassed almost all of them in knowledge. In addition to his studies he had the pious custom of climbing up to the top of Sinai almost every day in order to make reverent prayer on the site of those ancient great and glorious miracles.

Could the hater of good regard St. Gregory with indifference at the sight of such labors? In order to hinder the Saint on his way to perfection, he succeeded in sowing tares of trouble among Gregory's fellowascetics and in arousing in them the passion of envy. As a disciple of the meek and humble Jesus, as soon as Gregory noticed this criminal passion in them he secretly left the monastery, taking with him the worthy Gerasimus. Gerasimus was a native of the Island of Euripus, a relative of the ruling prince of that Island; but, despising the world with all its vain glitter and glory, he went to Mount Sinai. Here he came to know the divine Gregory, and, astounded by his extraordinary struggles, attached himself to him and became one of his disciples. With the help of God he also rose to the highest degree of activity (praxis) and divine vision (theoria), so that after the great Gregory he became for many a model of the ascetic life.

AND SO THEY LEFT SINAI and came to Jerusalem to venerate the lifegiving Sepulchre. After visiting all the holy places and reverently venerating them, they sailed to Crete and landed at a place called Fair Havens.1 Not wishing to spend time uselessly, the Saint went in search of some silent place fully suitable for the solitary life. After no little difficulty, they found some caves after their desire, and there they gladly settled. Here St. Gregory began to continue his struggles with redoubled energy so that in a special sense the words of the Prophet-King were justified: My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh is changed for want of oil (Psalm 108: 24). Actually from immoderate abstinence his face became sallow, and his limbs withered and were hardly able to move. But this blessed toiler in God had a flaming desire to find some spiritual man who could guide him to what he had not yet attained on the way to spiritual perfection. Soon the Lord regarded the holy desire of his faithful servant and arranged the matter in His wise way. Through a special revelation the divine Gregory was informed of a certain solitary practicing silence in that country who was an expert in activity and spiritual vision. He was called Arsenius. Moved by the Spirit of God, Arsenius himself came to St. Gregory's cell. St. Gregory joyfully received his guest. After the customary prayer and reading, this mind-reading elder carried on a conversation as if from some divine book on the guarding of the mind, on sobriety and attention, on mental prayer, on the purification of the mind by means of keeping the commandments and the possibility of making it able to see the light and on much else besides. After this address he asked St. Gregory:

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1. St. Paul spent a winter there (Acts 27:8ff).


"And you, child, what kind of activity do you practice?"

Then the divine Gregory told him everything about himself almost from the day of his birth. Arsenius, who already knew very well the way which leads a man to the height of virtue, said to him:

"All this, child, that you have told me about, is called by the God-bearing Fathers activity, and not vision (theoria)."

When he heard this, the blessed Gregory at once fell at his feet and fervently asked him, conjuring him even by the name of God, to teach him mental activity and to explain spiritual vision to him. Not wishing to hide the talent given to him by God to no purpose, the divine Arsenius willingly agreed to comply with the Saint's request, and in a short time he had taught him everything that he himself had richly received from Divine Grace. Moreover, he revealed to Gregory how various and countless are the snares of the enemy of our salvation – that is, he told him of what happens to those who practice the struggles of virtue by reason of the man-haters, the demons, and from envious men whom the evil one uses as the tools of his malice. Having received these priceless lessons from the divine Arsenius, St. Gregory went to holy Mt. Athos. Wishing to see all the fathers of the Holy Mountain, to pay his respects to them and to obtain their holy prayers and blessing, he went round all the monasteries, hermitages, cells, and also the deserts and impassable places. Among the fathers of the Holy Mountain he saw many ascetics who were extremely adorned with merely active virtues. And when he asked them whether they practiced mental prayer, sobriety, and the guarding of the mind, they said that they did not even know what mental prayer was, or the custody of the mind and sobriety.


The Monastery of Philotheus. Drawing by Photios Kontoglou


The Magula Hermitage, as photographed at the turn of this century


HAVING GONE ROUND all the Holy Mountain, he came to the hermitage of Magula, which lies near the Monastery of Philotheus, and there he found three monks, Esaias, Cornelius and Macarius, who were occupied not only with activity but with divine vision also. Here he built a cell for himself and others for his disciples. He placed his own cell at a sufficient distance from the cells of his disciples so as to be able to immerse himself wholly in God alone through mental prayer and be constantly occupied with Him, i.e., so as to engage in theoria without hindrance according to the lessons of his divine director Arsenius. And so gathering all his senses within himself, uniting his mind with his spirit and nailing it to the cross of Christ, he frequently repeated: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner! He prayed with tenderness and contrition of heart and with sighs from the depth of his soul, watering the ground with warm tears which flowed like a river from his eyes. And God did not despise his prayer: A contrite and bumble beart God will not despise (Psalm 50: 19), but He very soon heard him, for the righteous call and the Lord heareth them (Psalm 33: 18).

Therefore, having raised his soul and heart to white heat and having been changed by a gracious and glorious change through the action of the Holy Spirit and having been illumined by Divine Grace, he saw that his house was full of light. Filled with joy and unutterable happiness and again shedding fountains of tears, he was consumed by divine love. In him that saying of the Fathers was fulfilled indeed: "Activity is ascent to divine vision" (praxis theorias epivasis). And because the Saint had risen above the flesh and this world, he was wholly filled with divine love, and from that time that light never ceased to sanctify the Righteous man according to the word: the light is always for the righteous (Proverbs 13:9). For in answer to my question and that of my fellow disciples regarding spiritual vision, says the compiler of the life of St. Gregory, that glorious father replied that he who is raised to God sees by the grace of the Holy Spirit as if in a mirror the whole creation shining, whether in the body or out of the body he does not know, as says the divine Paul, until some hindrance to him during the vision makes him come to himself.

Seeing him coming out of his cell with a joyful face, I asked him in simplicity of heart about the cause of such a manifestation. And that ever memorable man, like a loving father, replied to me thus:

"The soul that is attached to God and consumed with love for Him rises above the creation and lives above visible things, and being completely filled with desire for God, cannot be hidden. As the Lord promised it, saying: Thy Father Who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Matt. 6:6), and again: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16). For then the heart leaps and dances for joy and the mind is all in a pleasant agitation and the face is happy and joyous, according to the words of the wise man: A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance (Prov. 15:13).

I again said to him: "Most divine father! For the love of the truth explain to me what the soul is and how it is contemplated by the saints?"

With great quietness, according to his custom, in answer to my question he kindly replied: "My beloved spiritual child: Seek not things that are too high for thee, and search not out things that are too deep for thee (Sirach 3:21). Because being still a child, that is, not perfect, you cannot digest very strong food, that is, you cannot understand subjects that are beyond your powers, just as the food of a mature man is not good for tender infants who need milk."

Falling at his feet and firmly grasping them, I asked him with great earnestness to explain this important subject to me. He consented and said to me briefly: "Unless anyone has seen the resurrection of his soul, he cannot know exactly what the spiritual (noetic) soul is."

But addressing him with due reverence I again asked him: "Tell me, father, have you attained to the measure of this resurrection, that is, have you learned what a spiritual soul is?"

"Yes," he replied with great humility.

"For the sake of the love of God, teach me this too," I humbly asked him. "This can be of great benefit to my soul."

Then that divine soul, praising my zeal, told me the following: "The soul when it uses all its zeal and struggles by means of the active virtues with due discretion, having laid low all the passions, subjects them to itself. And when it subjugates the passions, then the natural virtues surround it and follow it as a shadow follows the body, and they not only follow it but they teach it and instruct it in what is above nature, as if mounting by a spiritual ladder. And when the mind by the grace of Christ rises to what is above nature, it is enlightened by the shining of the Holy Spirit and stretches out to clear vision. Having become above itself, according to the measure of grace given it by God, it sees extremely clearly and purely the essence of things, not at all as outwardly-wise men philosophize about it, who only grasp at the shadow of things and do not try, as is proper, to get behind the essential action of nature. For, as the divine Scripture says, their foolish heart has been darkened, and professing themselves to be wise they became fools (Romans 1:21-22). Afterwards, having received training and the grace of the Holy Spirit, the soul gradually leaves the former things on account of the multitude of visions which it sees, and passes to the highest and most divine things, as the Apostle Paul says: forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before (Phil. 3:13). Then, purified in this manner, the soul truly casts away all fear and terror, and being attached by love to the Bridegroom Christ, she sees that her natural thoughts stop completely and remain behind her, according to the writing of the Holy Fathers. Having attained to the formless and unutterable beauty, she converses only with the one God and is illumined by the bright radiance and grace of the Holy Spirit. Thus when she is enlightened by this infinite light, she has affection only for God, and on account of this wonderful and new change she no longer feels this lowly, earthly and material body at all. For she is pure and bright without any admixture of material passion, and her nature, especially her mental nature, is as it was before the transgression of our first parent Adam. Adam was at first covered with the grace of this infinite light, but afterwards on account of the bitter transgression he was stripped of this luminous glory and radiance."

To all this that divine head added that a man who has attained to such a height through diligent exercise in mental prayer and who sees purely what his own attitude was when he came to the grace of Christ, has already seen the resurrection of his soul before the hoped for general resurrection. So that a soul purified in this way can say with the divine Paul: whether in the body or out of the body I know not (II Cor. 12:2). But also it is bewildered and astonished at it, and cries with amazement: 0 the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements, and His ways past tracing out! (Rom. 11:33). Such were the subjects I was granted to hear from this most divine father.


Holy Transfiguration Monastery near Trnovo (Bulgaria), where St. Gregory's teaching was spread by bis disciples (see p. 180)


WE SHALL NOW say a word about St. Gregory's disciples His first disciple was St. Gerasimus. He came from Euripus, as we said above. Afterwards he enjoyed the instructions of the most holy Patriarch Isidore. This new Gerasimus was a reflection of the ancient Gerasimus of the Jordan. Just as he went by the apostolic way and turned the wild desert of Jordan into a populous country and settled it with earthly angels, so this new Gerasimus, filled with Divine grace and being enlightened by God, went round the whole of Greece in an apostolic manner, filling all who were hungry and thirsty there for the Word of God with the sweetest teaching on virtue. He did not omit to found here, like the Jordanian Gerasimus, in this populous desert, many refuges of piety and chastity, teaching the members of these refuges the rules of pure morality and the attainment of man's original perfection. Having toiled in this way and having been granted to see even here the glory prepared for the chosen of God, he departed to the Lord to enjoy this glory no longer merely for a brief moment, but forever.

The Saint's second disciple was Joseph, who was a compatriot of Gerasimus. He had received no high education, but he was rich interiorly with the true wisdom given by the Holy Spirit, like those glorious fishermen who conquered kings and kingdoms.

St. Gregory's third disciple was the wonderful Abba Nicolas, a native of Athens. After experiencing many vicissitudes, the Patriarch Joseph wanted to make Nicolas a bishop. But out of modesty and humility he escaped to Mt. Athos He was already an old man when he met St. Gregory. But just as a magnet draws steel to itself, so St. Gregory drew to himself all who saw him and heard him speak. Just as during the earthly life of our Redeemer, when St. Andrew saw Him he at once left St. John the Forerunner and followed the sweetest Jesus, so as soon as Nicolas had heard him he at once became his disciple with all the ardour of his soul. Under St. Gregory's wise guidance he soon became skilled in all virtue and surpassed in humility all his brethren and fellowdisciples.

Another wonderful disciple was Mark. He became a monk in the Monastery of Isaac in Salonika. After some time he went to Mt. Athos and put himself under St. Gregory. Having acquired mental prayer and soberness, he was, as it were, a treasury and depository of all virtues. In particular he was distinguished for humility and obedience, which he showed not only to the superior but also to all the brethren, and he even served all strangers as a slave. All were amazed at him and praised him and cherished love and affection for him. His holy personality breathed a kind of spiritual fragrance and had a wonderful influence on others so that those who saw him at once felt in their soul a kind of sanctification and attraction to humility such as they saw in Mark, and they took this wonderful Mark as a model of virtue. Even when he had reached profound old age the divine Mark fulfilled his obediences with great joy and fervor. While serving as cook, for example, he never showed weariness or carelessness. That is why God, Who regards the meek and humble of heart, rewarded him with deep peace of soul, and imperturbable quietness of heart, and filled him with unspeakable joy and happiness; in other words, Mark became a most splendid organ of the Holy Spirit, a habitation of the Triune God. Mark's example served for the edification of many. Seeing his labors and hearing his gracious conversation, many received abundant spiritual profit. Among those who were edified by his angelic life was I. For I lived with him almost till his actual death and enjoyed his sincere friendship. We had as it were one soul in two bodies, and we did not know what was mine and thine. And so whoever called Callistus at once added Mark, and if anyone spoke of Mark he saw in him Callistus too. All the fathers living there in the hermitage looked upon us, upon the unanimity which we had between us by the grace of Christ, as a praiseworthy example, and if out of diabolic envy any of them had a disagreement, they at once reminded themselves of us, and the disagreement vanished.

Our divine father Gregory blessed this unanimity to be between us till our end, and moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit, he added that if we remained in such unity of spirit we should attain to the Kingdom of Heaven. This friendship of ours continued for twenty-eight full years. Before his death Mark was forced by bodily illness to pass from the hermitage to the lavra and to remain there till his death, but our bodily separation never destroyed our spiritual union. Daily going from strength to strength, the blessed Mark reached the highest degree of perfection, so that it is impossible to tell of his virtues. Even what I have told you has been told by me against his will. For out of humility he commanded me not to speak about his virtues. But as praise of the Saints redounds to God, I have considered it right not to be silent about his labors, for the spiritual profit and edification of others.

The blessed Patriarch next tells us about another of St. Gregory's disciples, Jacob. By the instruction and guidance of Gregory he reached such a height of virtue that he was consecrated to the Episcopate and became Bishop of Serbia.

I cannot pass by the wonderful Aaron. He was deprived of bodily sight. Therefore St. Gregory had very great sympathy for him. He explained to Aaron that the blindness of our bodily eyes not only purifies the eyes of our soul but also that the eternal light is given to those who endure it with thankfulness and put their trust undoubtingly in God in all things, and that when by the help and grace of God we purify our hearts by means of fervent and constant prayer then our mind and understanding are enlightened, which are in the soul as two eyes. And when the eyes of our soul are enlightened and opened, then man becomes spiritual in God and sees naturally as Adam saw before his transgression. St. Gregory also explained to him the fall of our first parent and his renewal to his original perfection.

After listening to these instructions, Aaron asked God in deep contrition of heart: "O Lord my God, Who didst raise her who was bent down, Who didst brace the paralytic with one word and didst open the eyes of the blind, raise me too by Thy unutterable compassion and despise not my wretched soul sunk in the mire of sin and let it not sink in the pit of despair; but as Thou art generous open the eyes of my heart, put into it the fear of God and give me to understand Thy commandments and do Thy will."

And this humble prayer of the blind man from the depths of his soul was not in vain. He was heard by God and the eyes of his soul were enlightened so that he no longer had any need of bodily sight. Now he no longer needed anyone to show him the way. More than that, he saw the actions of others even at a great distance from himself. Once he was walking with the Jacob mentioned above to a certain monk. When they were still a long way from the monk's cell, Aaron, enlightened from above, told Jacob: "The monk to whom we are going has in his hands the sacred Gospel and is reading such and such a place in the Gospel." When they came to the monk's cell they found that it was exactly as Aaron had foretold. But this is only a fraction out of much that could be told.

We must at least mention the names of some of the Saint's other disciples: Moses, Longinus, Cornelius, Esaias, Clement. Under St. Gregory's wise guidance they all made great progress in virtue and spiritual vision and, having obtained many disciples themselves, they died peacefully, surrendering their souls into the hand of God.

We must say something of what God granted to Clement. Clement was a native of Bulgaria. He was a shepherd. One night when he was on watch like those shepherds of old, he was granted illumination from above; he saw a kind of wonderful light shining on his irrational sheep and on all the pasture. Clement was filled with joy but at the same time was bewildered by the vision. He felt that this light was perhaps the natural dawn, as just before this he had fallen asleep for a short time on his staff. But while he had these thoughts, before his very eyes this light gradually rose to heaven and left behind it darkness and night. Soon after this Clement went to the Holy Mountain and in the hermitage of Morphima submitted himself to a certain simple but pious and virtuous monk. All Clement's training with this monk consisted in the prayer: Lord have mercy! After a short time Clement was again deemed worthy of the divine light. Clement told his spiritual father about this vision and asked him for an explanation of it. But as his elder had no experience of spiritual matters he went with him to the divine Gregory. Clement told St. Gregory everything about himself and warmly asked St. Gregory to accept him in his brotherhood. As an imitator of Christ, wishing the salvation of all, the Saint received him with joy and taught him everything that can be of service to our eternal salvation. For Clement's soul which in course of time had become God-seeing, spiritual sights were no longer incomprehensible. He related of himself that as often as he was sent by St. Gregory to the Lavra, during the singing of "More honorable than the Cherubim..." he always saw a bright cloud descend from heaven to the Lavra and cover it in a wonderful way. And when the hymn was finished, he saw the cloud ascend with light to heaven.

Not only did St. Gregory's disciples benefit by his soul-saving instructions but so also did all who came to him. Therefore nearly everyone regarded it as a great misfortune not to be at St. Gregory's and not to be able to hear his teaching. And because his word had unction, it always produced beneficial fruits in the hearts of his hearers. As at the very time of the great Peter's teaching in the house of Cornelius the Holy Spirit descended upon his hearers, so it was with those whom the divine Gregory taught, as those who had experienced this personally told me. For at the very time that St. Gregory was speaking about purity of soul and of how a man becomes a god by grace (they said), there came into our souls a certain divine, irresistible desire and affection for virtue and an inexplicable love for God. St. Gregory induced both solitaries and coenobites [those living a common life in a community] to practise mental prayer and guarding of the mind, in fact everyone.

BUT THE HATER OF GOOD, the devil, could not be indifferent to such labours as those of St. Gregory. He stirred up against the Saint some monks of false learning who, moved by envy, determined to drive him from the Holy Mountain. Out of ignorance some simple men inexperienced in spiritual mysteries also agreed with them. The envious and spiritual boors cried at the divine Gregory: "Do not teach us a way which we do not know," meaning mental prayer and guarding of the mind. Seeing the culmination of envy, the Saint gave place to evil and was silent for a time.

Later, taking with him one of his disciples and a certain disciple Esaias who had suffered much from the Emperor Michael Paleologus for his disagreement with the false Patriarch John Bekkos, he went to the Protaton [governing body of Mt. Athos] to have his teaching examined. The Protos [President of the governing body] received them kindly and began to rebuke the divine Gregory in a friendly and indirect way, but not for teaching about sobriety and mental prayer (for he was not one of the jealous and boorish clerics) but for teaching without his permission. But knowing St. Gregory's extraordinary labors and the true loftiness of his divine teaching, he left everything alone and was sincerely friendly with him. During his conversation with St. Gregory and Esaias he said: "Today I am talking to the chief Apostles, Peter and Paul."

The fathers who were opposed to St. Gregory, seeing the kind reception given him by the Protaton of the Holy Mountain and hearing the praise of the head of their monastic family, were persuaded of the truth of his teaching. From that time on, all, both hermits and non-hermits, with great joy recognized the divine Gregory and had him as their teacher. But as the number of those who came to him for spiritual profit increased so enormously that he was deprived of his beloved silence, he decided to use cunning in order to rid himself of his visitors. And so he started to change his place of abode, and he changed it frequently. Sometimes he went away to the most distant and impassable deserts. But the burning light could nowhere remain undiscovered; the city set on the hill of the virtues could not be hidden from the sight of those who sought him. Everywhere there came to him those wishing to hear from his mellifluent lips his divine teaching. Therefore in the most deserted places in which he lived, he built cells beside his own for the use of the people who visited him, showing indulgence to their labors and zeal.

THE MOSLEMS who were then ravaging Greece threatened also the Holy Mountain with devastation and enslavement. For one reason, because he had already experienced the iron yoke of these barbarians as we said above, and for another reason, because he did not wish to be deprived of his priceless silence, St. Gregory decided to go again to Sinai, to live in silence on its summit. But learning that neither there would he find the quiet he was seeking, since the impious Saracens were then spreading like lava over all the East, he abandoned his journey to Sinai. He then visited many places trying to find a place suitable for his contemplative life. After staying for some time in Salonica, he went to Mitylene, whence, through Constantinople, he reached Scythopolis. In the neighborhood of Scythopolis he found a place in a certain desert suitable for his life and he had already got established there when he incurred the persecutions of the envy of the local solitaries, so that his very life was in danger. Not being able to overcome this wicked envy by either his magnanimity or meekness, he returned again through Scythopolis to Constantinople. But as the impious sons of the slave woman had then quieted down a little and were not troubling the Holy Mountain, he went from Constantinople again to Athos. With another of the Saint's disciples, I was his constant fellow traveller on these journeys. During his stay in the desert of Scythopolis he composed the 150 chapters on sobriety, full of activity and theoria [these chapters are in the Philokalia].

The Saint was received in the Lavra to which he now went with genuine affection and great joy, and his arrival was regarded as their spiritual triumph. With the blessing of the elder brethren of the Lavra, the Saint built some cells in different places near the Lavra for himself and his disciples and there conversed with God alone. But when, by the permission of God, the Moslems again began to disturb the Holy Mount, being unable to practice silence outside the Lavra the Saint went inside it. But community life was not for him. He thirsted for solitude and theoria. And so, taking one disciple with him, he secretly left the Lavra and went to Adrianople. From there he went to a certain mountain called the "Mountain of Seclusion." Here he found a spot convenient for his life, but almost the whole mountain was full of robbers. Incited by the envious devil who was afraid that the Saint would turn the desert into a habitation of earthly angels, these robbers gave him much trouble. St. Gregory did not despair. He knew that for a naked man robbers of corruptible things are not dangerous. He heard of the pious King Alexander of Bulgaria. Consequently, putting his hope in God Who always assists the good intentions of His servants, the man of God sent his disciples to the King and through them he told him about himself and of his needs and asked him in the name of God for his help and protection from the robbers. The report of the piety of this king did not play St. Gregory false. This wonderful king, who held virtue and the virtuous in such honour, received the Saint's offer with joy and did more than the man of God asked him. For this royal lover of piety erected a whole monastery with all that was necessary for it and arranged everything in a royal manner. And he sent the Saint sufficient money for the maintenance of his group. He also gave several villages and a lake for catching fish for the future upkeep of the brethren; and he sent quantities of cattle and sheep and a large number of work-oxen. (Later, three more lavras sprang up here on the mountain). Here the Saint peacefully finished the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage, continuing to care for the good of the soul of each and all. He burned with longing to enrich the whole world with the knowledge of the ascent to the summit of activity and vision, and he longed to kindle in all a burning desire for this ascent. Of him, in a certain sense, one can say these divine words: (His) sound is gone out into all the earth, and (his) words to the ends of the world (Psalm 18:5). For he scattered his divine teaching not only among the Greeks and Bulgarians, but also among the Serbs and farther – if not personally, yet at any rate through his disciples. Almost every evil yielded to the power of his word. He turned even those savage rational wolves – those wild robbers and murderers – into meek and reasonable sheep, and by making them even here on earth shepherds of irrational sheep he converted them into spotless lambs in the flock of the eternal Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.

Such are a few out of many of St. Gregory's labors. Such was the life of this wonderful and blessed soul. But at last the time came even for him to pay the common debt of death. And so this toiler in God, after being slightly and briefly ill, surrendered his blessed soul into the hand of God and ascended to heaven in order to enjoy there Christ Whom he had always desired in the valley of earth, to Whom be glory, honor and adoration with the Father and the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.


The Monastery of Lavra. Drawing by Rallis Kopsidis.