GREGORY OF SINAI

GREGORY OF SINAI, monk, ascetic, St. (ca. 1255/65-ca. 1337). Gregory is generally credited with the reinvigoration of Orthodox monasticism (q.v.) and general renewal associated with the hesychast (q.v.) movement of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He promoted in particular the active practice of the “Jesus Prayer,” i.e., the invocation of the divine name accompanied by a discipline of breathing. Coming from the monastery of St. Catherine on Sinai, where this discipline might have originated, he found a ready welcome at Mt. Athos (q.v.) and later at Paroria of Thrace on the Byzantine-Bulgarian border. The Philokalia of Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain includes a selection of his writings.