Gregory Akindynos ( Latinized as Gregorius Acindynus) ( el, ) (ca. 1300 – 1348) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

theologian of Bulgarian origin.Ihor Ševčenko, Society and Intellectual Life in Late Byzantium, Vol. 137 of Collected Studies, Variorum Reprint, 1981, , p 74. A native of

Prilep Prilep ( mk, Прилеп ) is the fourth-largest city in North Macedonia. It has a population of 66,246 and is known as "the city under Marko's Towers" because of its proximity to the towers of Prince Marko. Name The name of Prilep appea ...

, he moved from

Pelagonia Pelagonia ( mk, Пелагонија, Pelagonija; el, Πελαγονíα, Pelagonía) is a geographical region of Macedonia named after the ancient kingdom. Ancient Pelagonia roughly corresponded to the present-day municipalities of Bitola, Pri ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

and studied under

Thomas Magistros Thomas, surnamed Magister or Magistros ( el, Θωμάς Μάγιστρος), also known by the monastic name Theodoulos Monachos, was a native of Thessalonica, a Byzantine scholar and grammarian and confidential adviser of Andronikos II Palaiologo ...

and Gregory Bryennios. He became an admirer of

Nikephoros Gregoras Nicephorus Gregoras (; Greek: , ''Nikephoros Gregoras''; c. 1295 – 1360) was a Greek astronomer, historian, and theologian. Life Gregoras was born at Heraclea Pontica, where he was raised and educated by his uncle, John, who was the B ...

after he was shown an astronomical treatise of that scholar by his friend

Balsamon Theodore Balsamon ( el, Θεόδωρος Βαλσαμῶν) was a canonist of the Eastern Orthodox Church and 12th-century Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch. Biography Born in the second half of the 12th century at Constantinople; died there, ...

in 1332, writing him a letter in which he calls him a "sea of wisdom". From Thessaloniki, he intended to move on to

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 peni ...

, but for reasons unknown, he was refused. He was involved in the theological dispute surrounding the doctrine of

Uncreated Light In Eastern Orthodox Christian theology, the Tabor Light ( grc, Φῶς τοῦ Θαβώρ "Light of Tabor", or "Uncreated Light", "Divine Light"; russian: Фаворский свет "Taboric Light"; Georgian: თაბორის ნათე ...

between

Gregory Palamas Gregory Palamas ( el, Γρηγόριος Παλαμᾶς; c. 1296 – 1359) was a Byzantine Greek theologian and Eastern Orthodox cleric of the late Byzantine period. A monk of Mount Athos (modern Greece) and later archbishop of Thessaloniki, he ...

and

Barlaam of Calabria Barlaam of Seminara (Bernardo Massari, as a layman), c. 1290–1348, or Barlaam of Calabria ( gr, Βαρλαὰμ Καλαβρός) was an Eastern Orthodox Greek scholar born in southern Italy he was a scholar and clergyman of the 14th century, ...

in the 1340s. As a student of Palamas', he mediated between the two from 1337, warning Barlaam in 1340 that his attempts against his doctrine would be futile, but from 1341 he became critical of Palamas' position, denouncing it as

Messalianism The Euchites or Messalians were a Christian sect from Mesopotamia that spread to Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and Thrace. The name 'Messalian' comes from the Syriac , ''mṣallyānā'', meaning 'one who prays'. The Greek translation is , ''euchit� ...

, and came to be Palamas' most dangerous adversary after Barlaam's return to Calabria. He was

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

at the Council of Constantinople of 1347 and died in exile, apparently a victim of the plague of 1348.

Literature

*''

Patrologia Graeca The ''Patrologia Graeca'' (or ''Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca'') is an edited collection of writings by the Christian Church Fathers and various secular writers, in the Greek language. It consists of 161 volumes produced in 1857– ...

'' vol. 151. *Angela Constantinides Hero (trans.), ''Letters of Gregory Akindynos'', Harvard Univ Press (1983), . review: Aristeides Papadakis, ''Speculum'' (1985). *J.-S. Nadal, "La critique par Akindynos de l'herméneutique patristique de Palamas," ''Istina'' 19 (1974), 297–328. *J. Nadal Cañellas, ed. ''Gregorii Acindyni refutationes duae operis Gregorii Palamae cui titulus Dialogus inter Orthodoxum et Barlaamitam'' (Louvain 1995). Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca, 31.(Greek text of Acindynus' treatises against a work by Palamas titled ''Dialogue between an Orthodox and a Barlaamite.'') *J. Nadal Cañellas, ''La résistance d' Akindynos à Grégoire Palamas. Enquête historique, avec traduction et commentaire de quatre traités édités récemment. I-II'' (Louvain 2003) Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense. Études et documents 50 - 51 (Gives a French translation, with important historical commentary, of the treatises edited by Nadal Cañellas in 1995.) * Juan Nadal Canellas, "Le rôle de Grégoire Akindynos dans la controverse hésychaste du XIVeme siècle à Byzance," in Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala (ed.), ''Eastern Crossroads: Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy'' (Piscataway: Gorgias Press LLC, 2007) (Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies, 1), 31–60. (For an English translation of this, see
Gregory Akindynos’s role in the 14th-century hesychast controversy
) * Anna Tryphonos,
Ο Γρηγόριος Ακίνδυνος μέσα από τις επιστολές του
' regory Akindynos through his letters; dissertation(Athens, 2012).

Literature

References

See also