Gregory of Agrigento
Gregory (559–630) was the
Biography
According to his biography, Gregory was born near Agrigento on Sicily in 559.[1][2] His mother's name was Theodote.[3] At the age of eighteen,[4][b] he went on a pilgrimage in the Holy Land, traveling via Carthage to Tripoli.[3][4] He was almost sold into slavery by a naukleros (ship-owner) in Carthage. The account of his travels in his biography has a romantic character and seems to have been an influence on the 10th-century Life of Gregentios.[3][4]
While in
The biography attributes to Gregory an education in
By 591, Gregory had been falsely accused of wrongdoing and was imprisoned.
Hagiography
A life of Gregory was written by Leontios
The editors' assessments of Gregory's biography's historical value also differ. For Berger, "though it has a historical core, [it] is in large parts legendary."[3] He does not think that the historical person at the core was the bishop.[14] For Martyn, it is "an important, contemporary document on the cities, clergy and people of Agrigento, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome during" the papacy of Gregory I and one of very few 7th-century sources on Sicily.[1] There are contradictions in the biography and in the account in the Synaxarion of Constantinople.[f] The latter has him alive during the patriarchate of Makarios II and the reign of the Emperor Justinian II (685–711) over a century later.[5] The biography depicts him as a contemporary of the monothelite controversy, which began in 629. When he is arrested in Agrigento, the Emperor Justinian intervenes with the pope to secure his release. The biography depicts the Sicilian episcopate as supporting Gregory against the papacy and in general has an anti-papal tone.[6] Morcelli, in his Latin edition, argued that the anti-papal tone stemmed from some pamphlets directed against Gregory I that circulated in Rome after his death. To Morcelli, it was evidence of the early date of the biography.[14]
The biography of Gregory survives in twenty manuscripts.
Gregory's feast is celebrated on 23 or 24 November in the Eastern Orthodox Church.[2] It is on 24 November in the work of Simeon Metaphrastes.[16] It was introduced to the Roman Martyrology by Cardinal Caesar Baronius on 23 November.[2] The popularity of Gregory's cult can be gauged by the large number of surviving iconographic representations of him.[15]
Commentary on Ecclesiastes
The hagiography supplies a list of works by Gregory, one of which was dedicated to
The commentary attributed to Gregory is considered one of the best on Ecclesiastes from antiquity.[20]
Notes
- ^ Agrigento is also called Girgenti in Italian. In Latin it is Agrigentum and in Greek Akragas.
- ^ He is said by the Synaxarion in a self-contradictory passage to have been 18 at his ordination to the diaconate.[5]
- ^ The last reference to the previous bishop, Eusanius, is from 590.[7]
- ^ Leontios (or Leontius) is described as the hegoumenos,[6] translated abbot[1] or prior,[2] of San Saba, although Berger calls him Leontios Presbyteros (Leontios the elder or priest).[3]
- ^ Greek Διήγησης εὶς τὸν βίον μακαρίου Γρηγορίου επισκόπου της Ἀκραγαντίνον ἐκκλησίας, Diegesis eis ton bion makariou Gregoriou episkopou tes Akragantinon ekklesias;[1] conventional Latin Sancti Gregorii Agrigentini vita.[8]
- ^ For this reason, Kazhdan regards the subject of the biography as a legendary figure possibly modeled on the bishop.[5]
- ^ Explanatio super Ecclesiasten libri I–X in the Latin edition of Morcelli.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Martyn 2004, p. 26.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cross & Livingstone 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g Berger 2006, pp. 26–27.
- ^ a b c Kazhdan 1999, p. 158.
- ^ a b c d e f Kazhdan 1999, pp. 25–26.
- ^ a b c d e Kazhdan 1991.
- ^ a b Lanzoni 1927, p. 641.
- ^ a b Martyn 2004, p. 12n.
- ^ Kazhdan 1999, p. 153.
- ^ a b Martyn 2004, pp. 244–245.
- ^ Kazhdan 1999, p. 156.
- ^ Martyn 2004, p. 29.
- ^ Van Pelt 2020, p. 1.
- ^ a b c d e Demacopoulos 2013, pp. 240–241.
- ^ a b c Re 2011, p. 248.
- ^ a b Høgel 2002, p. 188.
- ^ Høgel 2002, p. 92.
- ^ Høgel 2002, p. 143.
- ^ Morciano 2001, p. 944n.
- ^ Ferguson 1999.
Sources
- Berger, Albrecht [in German], ed. (2006). Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar: Introduction, Critical Edition and Translation. Millennium Studies, 7. De Gruyter.
- ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3.
- Demacopoulos, George E. (2013). The Invention of Peter: Apostolic Discourse and Papal Authority in Late Antiquity. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Ferguson, Everett (1999). "Gregory of Agrigentum". In Everett Ferguson (ed.). Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 491.
- Høgel, Christian (2002). Symeon Metaphrastes: Rewriting and Canonization. Museum Tusculanum Press.
- Kazhdan, Alexander (1991). "Gregory of Akragas". In ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- Kazhdan, Alexander (1999). A History of Byzantine Literature (650–850). Athens.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Lanzoni, Francesco (1927). Le diocesi d'Italia dalle origini al principio del secolo VII (an. 604). Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
- Martyn, John R. C., ed. (2004). The Letters of Gregory the Great. Vol. 1: Books 1–4. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
- Morciano, Maria Milvia (2001). "Il tempio della Concordia di Agrigento e S. Gregorio: alcune riflessioni. Dai demoni Eber e Raps ai SS. Pietro e Paolo". In Serena Bianchetti; Emilio Galvagno; Adalberto Magnelli; Gabriele Marasco; Giuseppe Mariotta; Ida Mastrorosa (eds.). Poikilma: Studi in onore di Michele R. Cataudella in occasionedel 60° compleanno. Agorà Edizioni. pp. 943–954.
- Re, Mario (2011). "Italo-Greek Hagiography". In Stephanos Efthymiadis (ed.). The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography. Vol. 1: Periods and Places. Ashgate. pp. 227–258.
- Van Pelt, Julie (2020). "Disguised Identity and Recognition in the Life of Gregory of Agrigento (BHG 707)". Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies. 60 (2).
Further reading
- Berger, Albrecht, ed. (1995). Das Leben des heiligen Gregorios von Agrigent: Kritische Ausgabe, Übersetzung und Kommentar. Akademie Verlag.
- Ettlinger, G. H. (1986). "The Form and Method of the Commentary on Ecclesiastes by Gregory of Agrigentum". Studia Patristica. 18 (1): 317–320.
- Martyn, John R. C., ed. (2004). A Translation of Abbot Leontios' Life of Saint Gregory, Bishop of Agrigento. Edwin Mellen Press.