Maximus the Greek

Maxim the Greek (Greek Μάξιμος ὁ Γραικός, Russian: Максим Грек, birth name Mikhail Trivolis, Μιχαήλ Τρίβολης, * 1470 in Arta, Greece, † January 21, 1556 in Sergiev Posad ) was a Greek writer, translator and monk. He is a saint of the Orthodox Church.

Life

Trivolis came from an aristocratic Albanian family and received a high- education. The school he graduated from in Corfu. At the age of about 20 years, he moved to Italy to study ancient languages ​​and to devote himself to philosophical studies. There he influenced humanists such as Aldo Manuzio. In Florence he heard Savonarola preach. 1507 he returned back from Italy to Greece and entered a monastery on Mount Athos, where he took the religious name Maxim. 1517 a reputation of Grand Prince Vasily III reached him. , The translator for the improvement and proliferation of Russian liturgical books was looking for. Maxim, who could still not speak Russian, in 1518 took up his residence in Moscow. Soon he came but because of the translation work in conflict with the Metropolitan Daniel († 1539), the 1525 convict him of a synod as a heretic and had put in the monastery prison. Through his rejection of the second marriage of the Grand Duke Maxim retired also its enmity and hostility of his wife, who later became regent Helena Glinskaya to 1531 and was sentenced again. The years 1525-1556 he spent mostly in captivity in changing monasteries. Maxim died at the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius.

Maxim the Greek is one of the figures of Russian history, which are shown on the 1862 completed a national monument one thousand years Russia in the Novgorod Kremlin.