| Gregory of Sinai | |
| Birth Date: | 1260s |
| Birth Place: | Smyrna (modern-day İzmir, Turkey) |
| Death Date: | 1346 |
| Death Place: | Paroria, Bulgaria |
| Known For: | Hesychasm on Mount Athos |
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.[1]
Born in Smyrna, he was captured by Seljuk Turks as a young man, and eventually ransomed to Cyprus, whence he became a monk at Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. Later, he moved to Crete, where he learned the practices of hesychasm from a monk named Arsenios. In 1310, he went to Mount Athos, where he remained until 1335. At Mount Athos, he was a monk at the Skete of Magoula near Philotheou Monastery.[2] Increasing Muslim raids on Athos pushed Gregory and some disciples into the Bulgarian Empire, where he would find protection under Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Alexander. He went on to found a monastery near Paroria, located in the Strandzha Mountains of southeast Bulgaria.[3]
Gregory's disciples also included Nicodemus of Tismana,[4] Patriarch Kallistos I of Constantinople (who wrote a life of Gregory c.1351),[5] Romylos of Vidin, Theodosius of Tarnovo, Gregory of Sinai the Younger, and Gerasimos of Euripos.
He died on 27 November 1346 in the mountains of Paroria, near present-day Zabernovo, Bulgaria.[1]
The Philokalia includes five works in Greek by Gregory:[6]