Saint Gregory of Sinai, the Younger (Serbian: Григорије Синајски Млађи; late 13th- and early 14th-century) was the founder of

Gregoriou Monastery The Holy Monastery of Saint Gregory ( el, Ιερά Μονή Οσίου Γρηγορίου), also known as Gregoriou Monastery ( el, Μονή Γρηγορίου) is an Orthodox Christian monastery in the monastic state of Mount Athos in Greece. T ...

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...

. The

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

as well as all the other co-religionist national churches celebrate his altar feast date of 7 December each year.

Biography

Gregory of Sinai the Younger was born sometime after the 1260s in Serbia according to his hagiographers. Although the exact date of his birth is unspecified, some hagiographers indicate that he was born between 1253 and 1258 in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

at a time when emigrant monks arrived in droves from the Middle East via

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

and

after the Mongol hordes invaded

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. Other sources say that Gregory was born most likely a decade later after the middle of the 13th century, sometime in the 1260s. Information related to the early life of Gregory is scanty. However, the few available sources agree that he was born at the time of Prince Lazar's Serbia. The reason for the scarcity of information about him maybe because the oldest-known source about this time period was written a hundred years after his death. That explains the very little ''hermaneia'' (an interpretation of what has been spoken more or less obscurely by others) about him but what is interesting that he did exist testified by

that he

bequeathed A bequest is property given by will. Historically, the term ''bequest'' was used for personal property given by will and ''deviser'' for real property. Today, the two words are used interchangeably. The word ''bequeath'' is a verb form for the ...

to the monastic state of

. It is known as a young man that he fell in love with learning and the Church being the bastion of knowledge that provided him with manuscripts and books. He eventually traveled throughout the holy places both near and far. It was then that he espoused a

hesychast Hesychasm (; Greek: Ησυχασμός) is a contemplative monastic tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church in which stillness (''hēsychia'') is sought through uninterrupted Jesus prayer. While rooted in early Christian monasticism, it took it ...

philosophy, popular at the time. Like his namesake of a generation past, he avoided church polemics and controversies and preached peace and meditation wherever he went. That garnered him, followers, and disciples. Today still little is known about him except that his theological beliefs were in tandem with the Hesychast doctrine of

Sinai Sinai commonly refers to: * Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God Sinai may also refer to: * Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...

's theology.

Works

He is remembered as the author of the ''Life of Gregory of Sinai'', the Senior, his spiritual mentor. As a young disciple of St.

Gregory of Sinai Gregory of Sinai, or in Serbian and Bulgarian Grigorije Sinaita ( 1260s – 27 November 1346), was a Greek Christian monk and writer from Smyrna. He was instrumental in the emergence of hesychasm on Mount Athos in the early 14th century. Biograph ...

, he also wrote about St.

Romylos of Vidin Romylos of Vidin also known as Romylos of Ravanica or Romylus the Athonite (''Romil Svetogorac'', ''Romil Svetogorski''); ( bg, Ромил Бдински; sr, Ромил Раванички) was a 14th-century Bulgarian cleric, a disciple of Gre ...

References

* Translated and adapted from a Serbian hagiography of ''Grigorije Sinait Mlađi'' (Gregory of Sinai the Younger) from the Klisina Monastery website: https://www.manastirklisina.com/prepodobni-grigorije-sinait-mladji/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory of Sinai the Younger Serbian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church 13th-century births Year of birth uncertain Year of death unknown People associated with Gregoriou Monastery Disciples of Gregory of Sinai