Reverend Maxim the Greek(in the world, as some researchers suggest, Michael Trivolis) was born around 1480 in the pious family of a wealthy Greek dignitary in the city of Arta (Albania). His father gave him an excellent education at home. In his youth, Mikhail studied languages and secular sciences in European countries, visited Paris, Florence, Venice. But worldly fame did not attract him - Mikhail chose the path monastic life and upon returning to his homeland he went to Athos. Around 1507, he took monastic vows with the name Maximus at the Vatopedi Monastery. The newly tonsured monk enthusiastically studied the ancient manuscripts left on Mount Athos by the Byzantine monastic emperors Andronikos Palaiologos and John Cantacuzene. The young monk hoped that he would stay on the Holy Mountain until the end of his days. But the Lord judged differently - he lived on Athos for about ten years.
Reverend Maxim the Greek. Fresco of the Spiritual Church
Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra
The Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III Ioannovich, wanting to understand the Greek manuscripts and books that belonged to his mother, Sophia Palaeologus, turned to the Patriarch of Constantinople with a request to send him a Greek scholar. The patriarch's choice fell on Maxim, and in 1518 he arrived in Moscow.
The Grand Duke received him with cordiality, showered him with attention and patronage, and appointed him to stay in the Chudov Monastery. The guest received funds for his maintenance from the Grand Duke's court. Metropolitan Varlaam of Moscow also paid special attention to the Monk Maxim.
Acquaintance with the Grand Duke's book depository delighted the learned monk. The Grand Duke, in consultation with the Metropolitan and the boyars, suggested that Maxim begin translating the Explanatory Psalter. Later he was tasked with revising and correcting liturgical books. Out of jealousy, Maxim spoke sharply about the errors that he found in ancient texts. Many people did not like this.
Dissatisfaction was also caused by the fact that Maxim did not put up with deviations from moral principles among those in power. In 1525 Grand Duke Vasily III Ioannovich decided to dissolve his marriage with the virtuous Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova due to the infertility of his wife and marry Princess Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya. Since church rules did not allow the possibility of divorce in such cases, the Monk Maxim considered it necessary to warn Vasily III against an inappropriate act. “Respect him as a true autocrat, O most faithful king,” Maxim wrote to the Grand Duke, “who, through truth and goodness, seeks to organize the lives of his assistants and always tries to overcome the lusts and dumb passions of his soul, for the one who is overcome by them is not an animated image of the Heavenly One.” Lords, but only a humanoid likeness of a dumb nature.”
Maxim's protest against the Grand Duke's intention to divorce his wife was used by the saint's enemies to deal with him. Without any reason, Maxim the Greek was declared a heretic for allegedly deliberately distorting the essence of the Holy Scriptures during translation. He was convicted and imprisoned for six years in the stuffy dungeon of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery. He was forbidden not only to see any strangers, but even to go to church. As an “unrepentant sinner,” he was excommunicated from communion of the Holy Mysteries. Then he was transferred to the Tverskoy Otroch Monastery under the supervision of the diocesan bishop. One day, in prison, an angel of God appeared to Maxim with the words: “Be patient, elder, with these temporary sufferings you will be delivered from eternal torment.” Filled with spiritual joy, the prisoner sang a canon to the Holy Spirit the Comforter, which he wrote down with charcoal on the walls of his cell. This canon was adopted for church use and is read in some monasteries on the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit.
St. Maxim entered the history of the Church as a man of enormous knowledge and high spiritual life. He bore the cross of unrighteous condemnation with great humility. When he was allowed to take up the pen again, the Monk Maxim wrote down, in his words, “the thoughts with which the sorrowful monk, imprisoned, consoled himself and strengthened himself in patience.” “Do not grieve, do not grieve and do not grieve, dear soul, because you are suffering without truth,” wrote the innocently condemned elder, “give thanks to your Master and glorify Him, who has made you worthy to pay off your entire debt with temporary sorrows in your present life. So, take heed to yourself, lest you think that this time is a time of mourning; on the contrary, recognize that this is a time of divine joy, so that you will not suffer, cursed, by extreme poverty, tormented for your ingratitude in the present and in the future century. If you always arm yourself in this way, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is many in heaven, as the heavenly truth says about it.”
The contribution of St. Maximus the Greek to the development of theological science is invaluable. He continued to work in captivity. During his stay in the Tver Youth Monastery, Maxim the Greek compiled interpretations of the book of Genesis, the Psalter, the books of the prophets, the Gospel and the Apostle.
In 1545, the Eastern Patriarchs asked the Grand Duke Ivan the Terrible to release the Monk Maxim to Athos, but to no avail. Last years He spent his life in retirement at the Trinity Monastery. His abbot Artemy, a friend of Maxim the Greek, and several boyars begged Tsar Ivan the Terrible to release him from captivity. In 1551, after twenty years of forced detention in Tver, the Monk Maxim arrived at the Trinity Monastery. Almost simultaneously, Metropolitan Joasaph, who was illegally deprived of the high priestly throne, moved to the same monastery. Saint Joasaph, Abbot Artemy and Saint Maxim were spiritually close people. At the Trinity Monastery, Maxim the Greek entered into communication with the monastic prince Nil (Kurlyatov-Obolensky). Maxim the Greek taught him Greek. Together they did new translation Psalms.
In May 1553, the Monk Maxim, who was already more than seventy years old, was visited at the Trinity Monastery by Tsar Ivan the Terrible. After the capture of Kazan, he, together with Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yuryeva, the infant Tsarevich Dimitri, and accompanied by Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky, went on pilgrimage to remote monasteries. The Monk Maxim did not approve of the royal intention and turned to the sovereign with the words: “Widows, orphans and mothers of Christians beaten near Kazan are still shedding tears, waiting for your ambulance: gather them under your royal roof, and then all the saints of God will rejoice in you and they will offer warm prayer for your power; God and His saints do not listen to our prayers according to place, but according to the good disposition of our hearts.” Having listened to the words of the venerable old man, the king did not abandon his intention, which he considered pious. Then the elder, through Prince Kurbsky, warned the king: “If you do not listen to me, know that your son, newborn Demetrius, will die!” But these words of the elder did not stop the king, and he and his family continued on their way. Soon the saint's prophecy came true - the prince drowned on the road.
This sad event forced the king to place even greater confidence in Maxim’s judgments. On next year Ivan the Terrible invited the monk to a council in Moscow to denounce the heresy of Matvey Bashkin. When Maxim, due to ill health, avoided attending the council, the tsar wrote him a message in which he asked the monk to send him his review of Bashkin’s teaching: “Let it be known to you for the sake of what guilt we rose to write this message to you, for it has reached until we hear that some heretics do not confess the Son of God, equal to the Father, and they do not count the holy body of our Lord Jesus Christ and His holy blood as anything, but accept them as simple bread and wine, and deny the Church, and call the images of the Lord, the Most Pure, idols His Mother and all the saints, and do not accept repentance or fatherly traditions.” The Tsar continued: “It has pleased me to send for you, so that you too may become a champion of Orthodoxy, like the first God-bearing fathers, and may the heavenly abodes receive you too, just as the zealots of piety who labored before, whose names are known to you. So, appear as their assistant and multiply the talent given to you from God and come to me and rebuke the current crime. We heard that you were offended and thought that we sent for you, that we classed you with Matvey. Do not cause the faithful to fight with the infidels; You, however, put aside all doubt and, according to the talent given to you, do not leave us with writing in response to this message. Otherwise, peace be with you in Christ. Amen". From this message it is clear how much the king valued the opinion of the Monk Maxim.
Reverend Maxim the Greek. Icon from the sacristy
Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra
The monk had very little time to live. On January 21, 1556, Maxim the Greek reposed in the Lord. Dying, the monk overshadowed himself three times sign of the cross. The place of his burial was the Trinity Monastery.
From the very first years after his death, Maxim the Greek was widely revered. In 1564, an image of St. Maxim appeared on the porch of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. Admirers of Maxim the Greek were such outstanding church authorities as Metropolitan Pitirim of Moscow and the archimandrites of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the Monks Dionysius and Anthony of Radonezh.
In 1591, with the blessing of Patriarch Job, the relics of the Monk Maxim were examined: “And the fragrance was opened, and a fragrance came from his relics, and his body was intact and unharmed, and his vestments and mantle, and all the veil on him had not decayed, and on his front hand , and the right hand is bent like a cross.” On the day the relics of the saint were found, sixteen people were healed at his tomb. In the Sergius Lavra, legends about miracles associated with the name of St. Maxim the Greek are carefully preserved.
The Monk Maxim the Greek saved Tsar Theodore Ioannovich from death. During the siege of Yuryev, the Swedes aimed their cannons at the royal tent in order to fire at it at night. In a dream, “a handsome and red-faced monk appeared to Theodore Ioannovich, saying: “Arise, come out of your tent, lest you be killed in vain.” The king listened to his advice. This monk was none other than the Monk Maxim the Greek. In gratitude for deliverance from certain death, the Tsar ordered gifts to be sent to the Trinity Monastery, and ordered the isographer Mikhail Vasilyevich Chustov to paint the image of Maxim the Greek. The miraculous salvation of Tsar Theodore Ioannovich from death during the Russian-Swedish war served as the basis for the canonization of St. Maxim the Greek as a locally revered saint.
In 1651 he came to the monastery St. Sergius according to a vow, a certain man from Moscow and after a prayer service sat down near the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the tombstone, but suddenly he was thrown from the tomb, and the unfortunate man could not get up for a long time. But when, having gathered his strength, he crawled to the grave and began to ask who lay under the coffin board, they answered him: “Monk Maxim the Greek.” Then he exclaimed: “Father Maxim, forgive me!” At his request, a memorial service was served for Maxim the Greek, and after that the victim received complete healing.
At that time, the cell attendant of the cathedral elder John was nearby. He did not believe the miracle and sat on the tomb of St. Maximus, thinking to himself: “Then I will believe it when the same thing happens to me.” The unfortunate man suffered the wrath of God. He was thrown from the tomb three times. The cell attendant's face was bloody, his teeth were crushed, his tongue was damaged. John bitterly repented of his insolence and, kneeling before the icon of the Lord Jesus Christ, begged for forgiveness. At this time he fell into a deep sleep and saw a monk praying in front of the image of the All-Merciful Savior. John asked him: “Who are you?” The worshiper replied that he was Maxim the Greek. John began to ask him for forgiveness. But the monk angrily said to him: “Why are you dishonoring me? You heard that on this day the man who sat on my grave was thrown down. Therefore, for your unbelief you received what you deserved.” The elder did not forgive John and hid from him.
In the 17th century, the image of St. Maxim the Greek was depicted on the frescoes of the Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. St. Sophia Cathedral in Vologda, Yaroslavl church St. John the Baptist in Tolchkovo. St. Maximus was also depicted in miniatures. On icons his image was depicted with a halo. At the end of the 17th century, the name of St. Maxim was included in the calendar.
In 1796, Metropolitan Platon ordered a new shrine and a stone tent to be erected over the tomb of St. Maxim, and in 1833, with the blessing of Archimandrite Anthony (Medvedev) of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, a chapel was erected over the grave of the saint, in which requiem services were served for his repose. The originality of these services lay in the fact that during the funeral services for Maxim the Greek, troparions were sung to the saint.
At the end of the 19th century, the Life of St. Maximus the Greek was published, which included integral part to the Trinity Patericon. In 1908, his Life was published as a separate edition with an iconographic image of the saint. The name of Maxim the Greek was included in the Athos Patericon. In all publications of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra he was called the venerable.
At the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988, Maxim the Greek was canonized for church-wide glorification on the basis of the holiness of his life and the miracles of him and his holy relics, and also on the basis of the fact that he is widely revered by the believing people as a teacher of monastic life, as a holy miracle worker. The relics of St. Maxim the Greek were found in 1996. Now they rest in the Spiritual Church of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra *).
Memory Venerable Maximus the Greek is celebrated in the Orthodox Church on February 3 and July 4 according to the new style.
Biography of Maxim the Greek
The Monk Maxim (in the world Michael Trivolis) was born in 1470 in Greece into a noble and wealthy family and received an excellent education in his native country, and then continued his studies in Italy, where he studied ancient languages, as well as theology and philosophy. During his stay in Italy, he met many famous philosophers and religious preachers of the Renaissance. Upon returning to his homeland, Mikhail Trivolis became a monk on Mount Athos, and a few years later he was sent to Rus' as a missionary and translator of spiritual books. Before his trip, he did not speak Russian, but the abbot, knowing about his education and ability for languages, vouched for him. In Moscow, Maxim Grek was greeted with great honor and began to study the Russian language.
The first book, the translation of which was entrusted to Maxim the Greek, was the explanatory Psalter. By this time, the monk did not yet sufficiently speak Russian, so two Latin translators helped him. Maxim Grek translated from Greek language into Latin, and the interpreters translated from his words into Russian. This work lasted a year and a half; upon completion, the monk wanted to return to Athos, but he was given new tasks to translate and correct liturgical and spiritual books: Maxim the Greek, seeing the need for this for the Russian Church, stayed and continued his work. The learned monk made many translations, including interpretations of some holy fathers on Holy Bible, as well as some texts of the Old Testament. In addition, he put a lot of work into correcting such liturgical books as the Book of Hours, Menaion and Triodion. A circle gathered near the learned monk educated people, who highly valued his translation works, however, there were also opponents of Maxim the Greek who were distrustful of the corrections he made to liturgical literature. Also, many were dissatisfied with the Greek monk for his condemnation of superstition and external piety, with which some tried to replace the true Christian life.
The position of Maxim the Greek changed dramatically when in 1521 the new Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus', Daniel, was elected. The Greek monk was accused of heresy and exiled to the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, where he spent a long time in harsh conditions and was even excommunicated from Communion. At a council held ten years later, the monk was charged with new charges of witchcraft and blasphemous statements and was transferred to the Tverskoy Otroch monastery. Bishop Akaki, under whose supervision the prisoner was, was distinguished by his gentle character, and he obtained permission from the Grand Duke to remove the shackles from Maxim the Greek, and he was also allowed to attend divine services and engage in reading and writing. IN Tver Monastery The monk spent another fifteen years of imprisonment, and then was transferred to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where he lived the rest of his days.
The canonization of St. Maxim the Greek took place at the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988, but his relics were discovered several years after the glorification of the saint.
Works of St. Maximus the Greek
The Rev. Maxim the Greek not only carried out colossal work in translating and correcting church books, but he also left behind many works on theological, apologetic and spiritual-moral topics. Special place His literary work includes the canon of the Holy Spirit, written by the saint during the most difficult period of his life - during his imprisonment in the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery. This canon was created after the appearance of the Lord to Saint Maximus, who consoled the suffering prisoner and promised to deliver him from eternal torment for temporary sorrows. Filled with spiritual joy, the saint wrote a canon in charcoal on the wall of his prison.
Troparion, tone 8:
Let us look at the dawn of the Spirit, you have been vouchsafed to those who are divinely wise, you have enlightened the hearts of men darkened by ignorance with the light of piety, you have appeared as the most luminous lamp of Orthodoxy, Reverend Maximus, from jealousy for the sake of the All-Seeing Fatherland you are alien and strange, you were a prisoner of the Russian country, you have endured the sufferings of dungeons and imprisonment from the autocratic, You are crowned by the right hand of the Most High and you work miracles, glorious. And be an immutable intercessor for us, who honor your holy memory with love.
Kontakion, tone 8:
With the inspired Scripture and theology, through the preaching of the unbelievers, you have exposed the superstition of the unbelievers, you are all-rich, and moreover, having corrected you in Orthodoxy, you have guided you on the path of true knowledge, like a god-voiced pipe, delighting the minds of those who hear, constantly cheering, Maximus is most wonderful, for this sake we pray to Thee: pray to Christ God God for the forgiveness of sins send down by faith to those who sing your all-holy Dormition, Maxim, our father.
Magnification:
We bless you, Reverend Father Maximus, and honor your holy memory, teacher of monks and interlocutor of Angels.
Prayer:
Reverend Father Maxima! Look upon us mercifully and lead those who are devoted to the earth to the heights of heaven. You are a mountain in heaven, we are on earth below, removed from you, not only by place, but by our sins and iniquities, but we run to you and cry: teach us to walk in your way, teach us and guide us. Your whole holy life has been a mirror of every virtue. Do not stop, servant of God, crying to the Lord for us. By your intercession, ask from our All-Merciful God the peace of His Church, under the sign of the militant cross, agreement in faith and unity of wisdom, destruction of vanity and schism, affirmation in good deeds, healing for the sick, consolation for the sad, intercession for the offended, help for the needy. Do not disgrace us, who come to you with faith. All Orthodox Christians, having performed your miracles and beneficent mercies, confess you to be their patron and intercessor. Reveal your ancient mercies, and to whom you helped the Father, do not reject us, their children, who are marching towards you in their footsteps. Standing before your most honorable icon, as I live for you, we fall down and pray: accept our prayers and offer them up on the altar of God’s mercy, so that we may receive your grace and timely help in our needs. Strengthen our cowardice and confirm us in faith, so that we undoubtedly hope to receive all the good things from the mercy of the Master through your prayers. Oh, great servant of God! Help all of us who flow to you with faith through your intercession to the Lord, and guide us all in peace and repentance, end our lives and move with hope into the blessed bosom of Abraham, where you now rest joyfully in your labors and struggles, glorifying God with all the saints , in the Trinity glorified, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
February 3rd(January 21, Old Art.) The Church honors the memory Venerable Maximus the Greek- one of the most famous saints among the Old Believers. The life of St. Maxim stands apart, as it were, in comparison with other hagiographies: here, in contrast to the traditional tale of the ascetic exploits of Russian monastic hermits and desert dwellers, we see a description of an unyielding moral struggle, as well as a special feat of patience in exile and severe hardships, for the sake of confession truth.
Life of St. Maximus the Greek
The Monk Maxim (in the world Michael Trivolis) was born in 1470 in the Greek city of Arta, he was the son of a wealthy dignitary and received an excellent education. In his youth he traveled a lot and studied languages and sciences in European countries; visited Paris, Venice, and Florence, where he was deeply impressed by the sermons of the Dominican monk and abbot of the monastery of San Marco in Florence, Girolamo Savonarola, who was later brutally executed by Catholic inquisitors. Secular vanity and worldly temptations did not seduce the reverend’s God-loving soul; after returning to his homeland, he, presumably in 1505, went to Athos and took monastic vows at the Vatopedi monastery.
Quietly and serenely leading a pious hermit life, the Monk Maximus for several years enthusiastically studied the ancient Athonite manuscripts, which were left behind by the Greek emperors Andronikos Palaiologos and John Kantakouzenos, who accepted monasticism. But after some time a decisive change took place in his life, which forever tore the monk away from native land and silent desert living.
In 1515, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Ioannovich (1505-1533) wanted to understand the Greek manuscripts and books of his mother, Sophia Paleologus, and turned to the Patriarch of Constantinople with a request to send him a Greek scholar. At first, the choice fell on the Athonite monk Sava from the same Vatopedi monastery, but the latter was so old that they decided to send the energetic and relatively young Maxim the Greek instead.
In 1518, the monk arrived at the new place and was greeted with great honor. They settled the learned monk in the famous Chudov Monastery. First great job Maxim was translating the Explanatory Psalter together with Russian translators and scribes Dmitry Gerasimov and Vlas Ignatov, which was approved by the Russian clergy and the Grand Duke. However, even then Maxim asked permission to return back to his beloved abode. But Grand Duke Vasily III rejected his request, and Maxim had to continue working on the books. He also wrote letters against Mohammedans, papism, and pagans. He translated interpretations into the book of the Acts of the Apostles, interpretations of St. John Chrysostom into the Gospels of Matthew and John, and wrote several of his own works.
Speaking about the church and theological works of the Monk Maxim, one cannot ignore his closest friend and like-minded person - the monk prince Vassian Patrikeev. The learned monastic associates had close cooperation and complete unanimity among themselves on many difficult and pressing issues for Russian society. They worked together to correct church books, both were ready to, regardless of their faces, expose human untruths, for which they were betrayed, each in their time, to an unjust trial and severe imprisonment.
Metropolitan of Moscow Varlaam (1511-1521), who initially met the scientist Athonite monk, highly appreciated his work. When, according to the will of the Grand Duke, he was forced to leave the department and retire, and the Moscow throne was taken by Metropolitan Daniil Ryazanets (1522-1539), the situation changed dramatically. The reason for the general displeasure seemed to have a very insignificant reason: the new metropolitan demanded that the Monk Maxim translate into Slavic language church history Theodoret, but he resolutely refused this assignment, pointing out that “this story includes the letters of the schismatic Arius, and this may be dangerous for simplicity.” This gave the metropolitan a reason to reproach him for “disobedience,” but the real contradictions were much deeper and concerned, first of all, the debatable church issue regarding monastic land ownership.
The Monk Maxim was a convinced follower of the “non-covetous” movement, whose spiritual leader at that time was the monastic prince Vassian Patrikeev. The experience of Athos had “non-covetousness” for ideologists special meaning. “All the monasteries without estates, without villages, live only by their handicrafts and incessant labors, and by the sweat of their brow they earn for themselves all the things of this life,” so wrote the saint. Maxim about the statutory order of the Athonite monks. Comparing the Slavic text of the Nomocanon with the Greek original, Maxim discovered that the mention of monastic villages appeared at some stage Slavic tradition, it was not in the original Greek text. According to the firm conviction of the monk, monasteries could only have small plots of land for subsistence with their own labor, but in no case should they take ownership of peasant settlements, for this was inevitably associated with great worldly vanity and trouble, leading to the disruption of the entire monastic order.
The general ideological direction of the “non-possessors” is most clearly stated in the “Response Word,” which was written by Elder Vassian:
“The Lord commands: “And I will give to the poor.” But we, overcome by love of money and hunger, our wretched brethren living in our villages, offend them in various ways, by torturing them with unrighteousness, offending them, and inflicting flattery upon flattery and usury upon usury upon them, but we show mercy to them nowhere, but we can never help them. give away the surplus from their estates naked without mercy, take away their cow and horse, and drive away Samech with their wives and children far from their borders, like the bad ones; You betray some of them to the princely power, to ultimate extermination as a forgery. And even if we are commanded to distribute ours to the poor, even if we practice virtue, we, as if we hate our own souls and take up arms against the commandments of the Lord, we offend and rob, we sell Christians, our brethren, and we torture them with a scourge without mercy, like wild beasts jumping on their bodies.”
Metropolitan Daniel, beloved student of St. Joseph of Volotsky, on the contrary, was a staunch follower of his teacher, who wrote a lot in defense of the rich monastic inheritances. Some facts of his biography are surprising. The exact date of his birth is unknown, the most authoritative sources point to 1492. In 1513-14 he was accepted into the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, and already in 1515, i.e. a twenty-three-year-old youth, took the place of the deceased St. Joseph, at the insistence of the Grand Duke himself and in accordance with the will of his teacher. Seven years later, that is, in the thirtieth year of his life (according to another version, thirty-seven years old), Daniel becomes the all-powerful Metropolitan of Moscow and right hand the Grand Duke, on whom he could completely rely in all the complex church and moral problems of that time.
Contemporaries did not like the new metropolitan, considering him too servile to secular authorities. Yes, contrary to church rules and the commandments of Christian morality, he agreed to issue a forged “metropolitan letter of protection” to the Grand Duke’s longtime enemy, Vasily Shemyachich, who, however, upon arrival in Moscow was immediately captured and imprisoned, where he ended his days. This whole story caused a storm of indignation in Russian society. The next case was even more indicative of the moral qualities of the young metropolitan, who soon became the chief judge-prosecutor of the Monk Maximus the Greek.
In 1525, the Grand Duke, due to the infertility of his first wife, Salomonia Saburova, decided to dissolve this marriage in order to marry a second time to a young beauty - the Lithuanian princess Elena Glinskaya, the future mother of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Metropolitan Daniel, contrary to the opinion of all other patriarchs, gave his blessing for the divorce and re-wedding. Then the brave confessor Maxim sent the prince “Instructive Chapters to the Leaders of the Faithful,” in which he convincingly proved that the situation obliges the prince not to submit to animal passions. The Grand Duke could not tolerate such harsh denunciations and ordered a Local Council to be convened to study in detail the church writings of St. Maxim. The main reason for his conviction of “heresy” was some inaccuracies in his first translations, which at that time were associated with insufficient knowledge of the Russian language. No arguments or objections to the justification were accepted; Maxim was found guilty and exiled to the monastery dungeon of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. The sufferer spent six years there in incredibly difficult conditions: he was locked in a damp, cramped and stinking cell, where he suffered numerous torments from smoke, cold and hunger. These were the most difficult years of his life. He was excommunicated from church services and communion, prohibited from having any contacts and writing books. But the Lord Himself did not abandon the innocent sufferer: one day a luminous Angel appeared to him and said: “Be patient, old man! With these torments you will be freed from eternal torment.” Imprisoned in a prison cell, the venerable elder wrote here with charcoal on the wall a canon to the Holy Spirit, which is still read in the Church: “Who fed Israel with manna in the desert of old, and fill my soul, O Lord, with the All-Holy Spirit, so that I may serve You with pleasure in Him.” ..."
In 1531, a secondary council was convened to condemn the “non-possessors.” This time Elder Vassian Patrikeev received a more severe punishment: he was also found guilty of certain heresies and was sent to a monastery prison, in the place of St. Maximus. But the monk himself, thanks to the intercession of the Eastern patriarchs, received some relief: he was sent to the Tver Otroch Monastery under the supervision of the Tver Bishop Akaki, who respected him greatly and provided him with the opportunity to read and write. Nevertheless, the church ban remained in force. In vain did the venerable elder (at that time Maxim was already in his seventh decade) beg to forgive his involuntary mistakes and let him go back to Athos, or at least lift the excommunication from communion. The death of the Grand Duke in 1534 did not change his position at all, since Metropolitan Daniel remained adamant in his decision. At this time, the monk composed an autobiographical work, “Thoughts with which a sorrowful monk, imprisoned, consoled himself and strengthened himself in patience.” Here he wrote in particular: “Do not grieve, do not grieve, do not grieve, dear soul, that you are suffering without truth, from which it would behoove you to receive all the good, for you used them spiritually, offering them a meal filled with the Holy Spirit... »
In 1538, the high patron of Metropolitan Daniel, the thirty-year-old widow of the Grand Duke Elena Glinskaya, suddenly died, and in 1539 he was deposed by the Shuisky princes and removed to the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, where he spent his last years in complete obscurity. Characterizing the activities of Metropolitan Daniel in general, Professor E. Golubinsky wrote the following:
“Metropolitan Daniel as moral personality He is far from a bright person. But the same Metropolitan Daniel occupies a completely outstanding position among our other metropolitans as a teacher, not in deed, but in the written word. He wrote not two or three teachings, like other metropolitans, but a whole big book teaching words and the same book of teaching messages.” It is known, in particular, that he revised a number of texts of a philosophical and philological nature that were part of the Old Russian literary tradition, including the Prologue of John the Exarch, the Definition of the Philosophy of Constantine-Cyril, as well as the “Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith,” or Theology of John of Damascus.
In 1551 or 1547, after repeated appeals from the Eastern Patriarchs and Metropolitan Macarius, Maxim the Greek was transferred to rest in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery and the church ban was lifted from him. Saint Macarius, who deeply revered the holy elder during his lifetime, introduced part of his teachings into the Great Chetya Menaion. The Monk Maxim the Greek left behind numerous works of a varied nature: theological, apologetic, spiritual and moral; In addition, messages and letters to private individuals have been preserved from Maxim. Already since the 16th century, his works have been distributed in numerous handwritten copies, some of them are stored in the library of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra; In total, the monk wrote up to 365 texts.
In the 17th century, during Church reform, around the theological writings of Maximus the Greek, disputes flared up between supporters and opponents of innovations: in order to denigrate the ancient rites, the reformers declared two works of the monk to be forged, where he wrote about double-fingeredness and extreme alleluia. Historians Golubinsky and Kapterev convincingly refuted this point of view, but in pre-revolutionary printed publications For censorship reasons, these two works by Maxim were not included.
Miracles and veneration of St. Maximus the Greek
The Monk Maxim the Greek reposed on his memorial day heavenly patron- St. Maximus the Confessor. He was buried in the Trinity Monastery, near the northwestern wall of the temple in the name of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles (Holy Spiritual). In 1561, the first miracles happened at the tomb of the saint - the spiritual insight of a certain pilgrim and cell attendant of the cathedral elder Vassian John. It became part of the legends of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. There are also many other manifestations of grace attested that took place at the tomb of the saint, on which the troparion and kontakion to him are written. The Monk Maximus the Greek is also venerated as a saint in the Churches of Constantinople and Greece. The face of St. Maxim is often depicted on the icon of the Council of Radonezh Saints.
Among the Old Believers, St. Maxim the Greek has always enjoyed wide authority as a learned monk who theologically affirms the truth of the Old Orthodox rites: double-fingering, special alleluia, etc. His works are pointed out, in particular, by such outstanding figures of the Old Believers as St. svschmch. Avvakum and the famous writer-apologist (“apostle of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy”) F. E. Melnikov. Local veneration of the saint followed almost immediately after his death. His holy relics are glorified by incorruption and miracles and are now open for veneration in the Assumption Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Lavra.
Reverend Maxim the Greek. Iconography
In numerous lists of works and translations of Maxim the Greek in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. His images are often found. Usually these are miniatures representing an elderly man in monastic clothes, with a wide and long beard, most often in profile, shoulder-length, sometimes waist-length, sometimes full-length, sometimes with writing instruments, copying books. However, these conventional “portraits” of Maxim the Greek did not remain his only images. It is difficult to name any other figure of ancient Russian writing and literature whose depiction would have been given as much attention in the 16th - 18th centuries. Here are miniatures in handwritten books, and numerous icons, distinguished by a variety of iconographic prototypes, and, finally, frescoes decorating the walls of cathedrals and churches. With all the richness of this material, it is easy to notice the difference between those images of Maxim the Greek, in which he is presented as a writer, publicist, thinker, and others, in which he was given the significance of a saint, emphasizing this not only with a halo around his head, but also with the inscription “Reverend Maxim Greek".
Undoubtedly, the earliest of all his images that have reached us are three drawings in the lists of his works in the Solovetsky collection. They are usually dated to the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. If these are not lifetime images of Maxim the Greek, then in any case they go back to some unknown stable prototype, which conveys not only the generally monastic appearance of Maxim the Greek, in profile, with a beard, in a hood, but also his individual features: curved down a hooked nose, sharp folds on the cheeks, below the cheekbones, a luxuriantly growing beard.
The fact that Maxim the Greek’s contemporaries looked at him primarily as a writer and thinker can be judged by the already mentioned image of him on the frescoes of 1564, just 8 years after his death, in the gallery of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Thus, the first stage in the history of the image of Maxim the Greek consists of his conditional “portraits” as the author of numerous works and translations created by him during his almost forty years (1518-1556) stay in Russia.
It is extremely interesting that many of his demands, expressed by him in various literary works, were accepted back in the Stoglava Cathedral. All this shows us Maxim the Greek as an intelligent, courageous and sharp-minded writer and publicist, who with firm conviction defended his views, which were formed in the struggle between the “non-possessors” and the “Josephites.” Possessing the remarkable temperament of a publicist, Maxim the Greek was a bright, albeit somewhat tragic, figure in Russian culture of the 16th century.
Moral teachings of St. Maximus the Greek
Why, my dear soul, do we indecently consign to oblivion the glory and bliss of the heavenly crowns with which Christ, the King of all, promises to crown those who courageously resist their bodiless enemies? Why do we not keep in our minds the divine purpose for which we were created by God in His image, but like animals alien to reason, we spend the entire time of our lives pleasing the belly? Why, having been created to inherit heavenly blessings, do we senselessly, O soul, hold on to earthly ones? I am the image of God: accordingly, we must philosophize in order to acquire primitive kindness. But know that you then act in accordance with your Prototype, with which you must have real similarity, when you diligently, even until your last breath, direct your life according to his Divine commandments; when you remove yourself far from submission to the passionate desires of the flesh; when you root out every lie, flattering disposition and destructive envy from your heart; Let us love the truth, right reason, holy kindness and holy life in everything. Otherwise, let no one call himself the image of God unless he has acquired in himself all the beauties of the Prototype.
We were created on earth to be guardians of immortal beauty and participants in God's secret conversations. Let us recognize, soul, the height of our glory and let us not senselessly liken ourselves to dumb animals. The end will not be the same for us and for them, O soul, just as the image is not the same for both. They tend to always bend down and constantly fill their wombs with earthly growths; With us, the soul and the very appearance of the body are beautifully designed by the wise Artist. I will not talk about your other god-like beauties, with which you are very magnificently adorned: they sufficiently convince us that our fatherland is heaven, and that we can boast that we have the Most High God as our Father. Therefore, we will always try to direct our minds to grief, where our Father and our residence are. The Most High calls us His sons: then why are we, as humans, dishonorably expelled from this (divine) life (Ps. 82:6-7)? Let us glorify the Most High on earth, so that He too may adorn us with heavenly crowns. Let us glorify the Most High with all our hearts by the righteous and immaculate keeping of His commandments; let us take hold of eternal life. Let us hate with all our hearts everything base and throw away from ourselves the yoke of enslavement to passions. Let us stand on the firmament of high freedom, on the firmament of godlike freedom, with which you were enriched before you fell into the power of the destructive demon, when, having lost your immortal glory, you became like senseless cattle (Ps. 49:21). You, face to face, boldly enjoyed the divine conversations of your Creator: try to enter this glory again with the godly morals of true piety (Word 1, very soul-helping for those who listen to it. The mind speaks to the soul; here also against covetousness).
Saints and Reverend Fathers amounted to a lot various prayers, and they all have one content and one goal: with them we confess to the Lord of all the sins we have committed before and ask for forgiveness for ourselves and, so that we can leave them behind, and for the future be strengthened by the fear of the Lord, and live pleasingly before Him, according to His holy commandments, and who have reached perfection, and have come to the measure of the age of Christ, as the Apostle says: “Until we reach all things in the union of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ” (Eph. 4:13), - they ask to receive the power and enlightenment of the Divine mind. Let it be known to us, the pious, that while we remain in sin, that is, in the transgression of the divine commandments of Christ God, then, even if all the prayers of the saints, and troparia, and kontakion, and prayer canons are read daily and at all hours, - We achieved nothing with this. For the Lord Christ Himself, as if reproaching and reproaching us, says to us: “Why do you call Me, O Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46), that is: as long as you live in transgression of My commandments, so long you call upon Me with many and lengthy prayers in vain. There is only one prayer that is favorable and pleasing to Him, this is active prayer, which consists in abandoning with all one’s soul forever any violation of His holy commandments and then being confirmed in the fear of Him, doing all righteousness, with spiritual joy and unfeigned love (Word 10, to those who live incorrigibly in sins, but daily fulfill the canons and prayers established by the holy fathers, and thereby hope to be saved).
Do not grieve, do not grieve, do not grieve, my dear soul, that you suffer without guilt from those from whom you should have received all the benefits, since you fed them with a spiritual meal, filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is patristic interpretations the divinely inspired hymns of David, translated by you from Greek into the glorious Russian language! Also, many other spiritual books, some of which were translated by you, and others, into which many incorrect foreign words crept in, were properly corrected. On the contrary, thank your Master, praise and glorify Him consciously that He has made you worthy in this present life through temporary sorrows to repay in abundance all your debt and those significant talents that you owed Him. Be careful not to consider this time a time of lamentation, but, on the contrary, a time of divine joy, so that you, the accursed one, do not suffer double deprivation, suffering from ingratitude. On the contrary, have fun and rejoice wisely, always trying to lead a humble life, with thanksgiving, with good hope and honesty, which conveniently admires the Kingdom of Heaven, with which nothing that exists can compare. If you always dispose yourself in this way and thus try to infuse yourself with your Master, then rejoice and be glad, as your Lord commands, for your reward is many in heaven (Word 49, written by the compiler of this book to console himself and strengthen him in patience when he was imprisoned and in tribulation).
Today, our dear visitors, the Church remembers the glorious memory of the Russian ascetic, St. Maxim the Greek!
We offer you to read a detailed and edifying biography of this wondrous saint, compiled by St. Demetrius of Rostov.
In the Greek city of Arta in 1470, Rev. was born. Maxim Grek. His parents, Emmanuel and Irina, belonged to the Trivolis family, well known in their time, from which one of Patriarchs of Constantinople. Both father and mother received a philosophical education, the father served as a military adviser at the Emperor's court. Being pious Orthodox Christians, they raised their son in the faith. At baptism he received the name Michael.
In 1480, his parents sent him to the island of Corfu (then under Venetian rule) to study classical sciences under the guidance of the philosopher and teacher John Moschos. In 1492, 40 years after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks, he traveled to Italy, which had become (especially in the south of Italy) the center of Greek education and scholasticism. He traveled widely throughout the country, traveling to Padua, Ferrara, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Milan, and also, according to some sources, to Germany and Paris. Having rich opportunities and intellectual experience, he became interested in humanistic theories, which in those years flooded Europe with its scholasticism and awakened a keen interest in classical Roman and Greek literature and philosophy. From 1498 to 1502 he worked in Venice as a protégé (and possibly secretary) of Giovanni Pico de la Mirandola, teaching Greek and copying the works of the Holy Fathers. When the French invaded Venice, Mirandola went to Bavaria, and Michael went to Florence, where he took monastic vows at the Dominican monastery of St. Brand. In the past, Savonarola lived in this monastery, whose sermons he had listened to many times before.
There is no information in hagiographic sources explaining the reasons for this short stay in the bosom of Catholicism. It is only known that the teacher and scholastic John Laskaris, who brought early Greek manuscripts from Athens to Florence for safekeeping, helped the young man Michael turn his gaze to the East again. In 1504, Laskaris advised Michael to go to Mount Athos to the Vatopedi monastery, famous for its extensive library. This is where his return to Orthodoxy took place. He was tonsured in 1505 with the name Maxim in honor of St. Maximus the Confessor. In the library of the Vatopedi Monastery he was fascinated by the works of St. John of Damascus. It was during this period that he wrote the canon of St. John the Baptist. His main obedience was collecting alms for Athos monasteries, and he fulfilled this obedience for ten years.
In 1515, when Father Maxim was forty-five years old, envoys from Grand Duke Vasily of Moscow arrived on Athos with a request to send an experienced translator to Moscow who could correct early Greek-Slavic church texts, as well as make new translations. In 1518, in response to the request of the Grand Duke, Father Maxim, who knew the Scriptures, Latin and Greek well, was sent to Moscow, and with him two more monk-scribes. In Moscow they were settled in the Kremlin in the Chudov Monastery. Father Maximus's first work was the Psalter with commentaries, which he translated from Greek into Latin. He handed over this translation to two Russian specialists, and they presented the Latin version in Church Slavonic. It remains a mystery why it was necessary to go through such a difficult path in order to obtain the Slavic version of these texts. Perhaps in in this case the simplest explanation should be accepted: it is quite likely that the Grand Duke did not have people who could successfully cope with the Greco-Slavic written translation. Maxim himself did not know Slavic, and the Slavic translators, apparently, were only fluent in Latin, which is why it became necessary to use Latin as an intermediary language. The Slavic edition appeared a year and a half later. The introduction to it was a letter from Maxim to Grand Duke Vasily. Both the Grand Duke and Metropolitan Varlaam of Moscow were pleased with the translation. The Grand Duke generously paid the monks and sent both copyists back to Athos, leaving Maximus to do a new translation of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. This work was completed in 1521. Along with his own research into Slavic texts, he began to work on translating individual parts of the Nomocanon (Collection church canons and regulations); holy comments John Chrysostom to the Gospel of Matthew and John; the third and fourth chapters of the second book of Ezra; excerpts (with commentaries) from the books of Daniel, Esther and the minor prophets; works of Symeon Metaphrastus. During the same period, he corrected the Slavic Gospel with commentaries and several liturgical books - Book of Hours, festive Menaions, Epistles and Triodion. In addition, he wrote treatises on grammar and language structure, calling it “the gateway to philosophy.”
His works and ideas attracted many educated and influential Russian people from among the Grand Duke's courtiers. With their help, he became closely acquainted with Russian life and very vividly described the love of Russians for the Orthodox Church. church service and rituals. He also wrote polemical works - against astrology and the heresy of the Judaizers, against Muslim and Latin beliefs, as well as against various superstitions, including the interpretation of dreams, fortune telling and dubious apocryphal teachings. However, his activities soon began to cause discontent. The corrections he made were met with distrust, often only on the grounds that the saints served from uncorrected books, and, despite this, pleased God. Many Russians were offended by Maxim’s criticism, who said that they did not properly know their faith and were often content with external things. He brought upon himself even more trouble by entering into controversy between Rev. Neil Sorsky and Rev. Joseph Volotsky on whether monasteries should collect wealth and own property. Like Metropolitan Varlaam of Moscow, Rev. Maxim sided with the Rev. Nile and the non-covetous. However, in 1521, Metropolitan Varlaam was replaced by Metropolitan Daniel, a disciple of the recently deceased Venerable. Joseph Volotsky. The new Metropolitan had long disliked the oppositional activities of an educated Greek monk who mastered the art of eloquence. The next blow, sudden and unexpected for the reverend. Maxim, Grand Duke Vasily became hostile towards him. An innocent conversation with the Turkish ambassador led to accusations of collaborating with the Turks to bring in Turkish troops in Russia. And although these accusations came from courtiers from among the well-known envious people of the Rev. Maxim, several people closely associated with Maxim were arrested on suspicion of treason, tortured and executed. Rev. himself Maxim was sent to prison in the Moscow Simonov Monastery until his trial. On April 15, 1525, a meeting of the church court took place, at which the Greek monk was convicted not only of alleged high treason, but also Metropolitan Daniel accused him of heresy. Due to his imperfect knowledge of the Slavic and Russian languages, he made mistakes in later direct translations, and his enemies used these mistakes for their own purposes. Forced to make excuses, Rev. Maxim said that he did not notice the difference in meaning between that grammatical form, that he used, and the one that turned out after making corrections. This statement of his was regarded as a refusal to repent. He was declared a heretic, excommunicated from the Church and sent to prison in the Volokolamsk Monastery.
The Monk Maxim lived for six years in captivity in Volokolamsk in a cramped, dark and damp cell. His suffering was aggravated by the fact that the cell was not ventilated, which is why smoke and the smell of rot accumulated in it. Not having good health, he was close to death more than once: disgusting food, cold and constant isolation took their toll. What saddened him most was his excommunication from Holy Communion. He was not allowed to attend church, but from his own stories it is known that at least once during his imprisonment he was visited by an angel. The angel said that through these temporary sufferings he would escape eternal torment. The vision filled the Rev. Maximus with spiritual joy, and he compiled a canon to the Holy Spirit. This canon was later discovered in the cell. It was written on the walls with charcoal. In 1531 he was tried a second time, and again Metropolitan Daniel charged him with heresy. This time the situation looked even more absurd, since in addition to treason he was now accused of witchcraft. By that time, he was already fluent in Russian and was able to answer the accusation against him. He said that the translation attributed to him is “the heresy of the Judaizers, and I did not translate it that way and I didn’t tell anyone to write it that way.” He behaved in court with great humility, bowed to the judges with tears and asked for forgiveness.
After the trial, he was transferred to the Tverskoy Otroch Monastery under the supervision of Bishop Akaki, brother of the late Joseph of Volotsky. Bishop Akakiy asked the Grand Duke for permission to remove the Venerable. Maxim has iron shackles and permission to provide him with the most necessary amenities and conditions. Bishop Akakiy had great respect for his prisoner, invited him to his meal, let him go to church and allowed him to have books, paper and writing materials. The saint began to write again. In the Tver Monastery he wrote commentaries on the Book of Genesis, on the psalms, books of the prophets, the Gospel and the Epistles. He gave his works to copyists and copied them himself for friends. In 1533, Grand Duke Vasily died. Rev. Maxim wrote “Confession Orthodox faith”, with the hope that the new government will recognize his Orthodox beliefs and return his freedom. Unfortunately, it did not happen.
Meanwhile, his tragic situation attracted the attention of the Patriarch of Constantinople Dionysius and the Patriarch of Jerusalem Herman. In 1544 they sent a request that he be allowed to leave for Athens. In 1545 he petitioned for his release Patriarch of Alexandria Joachim, but none of these requests were granted. In 1547, Rev. Maxim wrote about his situation to Metropolitan Macarius, who was then beginning to gain influence among the church hierarchs, but he replied: “We honor you as one of the saints, but we cannot help you while Metropolitan Daniel is alive.” Metropolitan Daniel proclaimed excommunication, and until his death no one but him could lift this sentence. Then Rev. Maxim asked Metropolitan Daniel himself to allow him to receive Holy Communion. Unwilling to repent publicly, Daniel advised him to pretend to be dying and receive the Holy Mysteries as part of the service of unction. But Rev. Maxim replied that he would not seek Holy Communion by deception.
Later, he again wrote to Metropolitan Daniel, begging him to be allowed to receive communion. In the end, permission was granted. In 1551, after twenty-six years of imprisonment, he finally received freedom. He was sent to live in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where, together with his friend, a monk named Neil, he made a new translation of the Psalter. In 1553, after the successful completion of the campaign against the Tatars in Kazan, Tsar John IV (the Terrible), who had suffered a serious illness, went to the Kirillov Monastery to fulfill his vow. On the way, he made a stop at the Lavra to talk with Rev. Maxim. The saint persuaded him to abandon the pilgrimage, stay at home and take care of the widows and orphans of those who died in the campaign against Kazan. “God is everywhere,” he told the king. “Stay at home and He will help you. Your wife and child will be healthy.” The king insisted on continuing the pilgrimage, although Rev. Maxim warned him, saying: “Your son will die on the way.” The king went further, and his son, Tsarevich Dimitri, died, as the Saint predicted, at eight months old. Rev. Maxim reposed in the Lord on January 21, 1556 at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. He was buried near the northeastern wall of the Church of the Holy Spirit. At the end of the sixteenth century, Father Maxim was canonized as a locally revered saint after his miraculous rescue of Tsar Theodore Ioannovich. The Tsar was in Yuryev, fighting the Swedes. Rev. Maxim appeared to him in a dream and said that Swedish artillery was deployed towards his headquarters, and that he needed to leave quickly before the shelling began. The king did so - and escaped death. In gratitude, he sent gifts to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and ordered an icon of St. Maxima. In 1591, under Patriarch Job, in preparation for the canonization of Maxim as a locally revered saint, his relics were discovered. They turned out to be incorruptible and emitted a fragrance; even part of the saint’s robe was untouched by decay.
Of those who prayed at his grave then, sixteen people miraculously received immediate healing. Other miracles followed, and in 1796 a beautiful tomb was built. In 1833, Archbishop Anthony of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra built a chapel over the grave.
Maxim's canonization as a saint of the entire Church took place in 1998. His memory is celebrated on July 6 (the day of all Radonezh saints), on the first Sunday after the day of the holy apostles Peter and Paul (the day of the Council of Tver saints) and on January 21, the day of his death.
In 1997, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church handed over a particle of the relics of St. Maximus the Greek to the Church of St. George in the city of Arta. In the future, it is planned to build a temple in honor of St. Maxima.
Reverend Father Maxima, pray to God for us!
Venerable Maxim the Greek (XV - XVI centuries), former son a wealthy Greek dignitary in the city of Arta (Albania), received an excellent education. In his youth he traveled widely and studied languages and sciences in European countries; visited Paris, Florence, Venice. Upon returning to his homeland, he arrived on Athos and accepted monasticism at the Vatopedi monastery. He enthusiastically studied ancient manuscripts left on Mount Athos by the monastic Greek emperors (Andronikos Palaiologos and John Kantakouzenos). At this time, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Ioannovich (1505 - 1533) wanted to understand the Greek manuscripts and books of his mother, Sophia Paleologus, and turned to the Patriarch of Constantinople with a request to send him a Greek scholar. Monk Maxim received instructions to go to Moscow. Upon arrival, he was tasked with translating the interpretation of the Psalter into the Slavic language, then the interpretation of the book of the Acts of the Apostles and several liturgical books.
The Monk Maxim diligently and carefully tried to fulfill all orders. But, due to the fact that the Slavic language was not the native language of the translator, naturally, some inaccuracies arose in the translations.
Metropolitan Varlaam of Moscow highly valued the works of St. Maxim. When Metropolitan Daniel took the Moscow throne, the situation changed.
The new metropolitan demanded that the Monk Maxim translate the church history of Theodoret into Slavic. Maxim the Greek resolutely refused this assignment, pointing out that “this story includes letters from the schismatic Arius, and this could be dangerous for simplicity.” This refusal sowed discord between the saint and the metropolitan. Despite the troubles, the Monk Maxim continued to work diligently in the field of spiritual enlightenment in Rus'. He wrote letters against Mohammedans, papism, and pagans. He translated interpretations of St. John Chrysostom into the Gospels of Matthew and John, and also wrote several of his own works.
When the Grand Duke intended to dissolve his marriage with his wife Solomonia because of her infertility, the brave confessor Maxim sent the prince “Instructive Chapters for the Leaders of the Faithful,” in which he convincingly proved that the situation obliges the prince not to submit to animal passions. The Monk Maximus was imprisoned. From that time on, a new, long-suffering period in the saint’s life began. Inaccuracies discovered in the translations were blamed on St. Maximus for deliberate damage to books. It was hard for the monk in prison, but in the midst of his suffering the monk also acquired the great mercy of God. An angel appeared to him and said: “Be patient, old man! With these torments you will be delivered from eternal torment.” In prison, the venerable elder wrote with charcoal on the wall a canon to the Holy Spirit, which is still read in the Church: “Who fed Israel with manna in the desert of old, fill my soul, O Master, with the All-Holy Spirit, so that I may serve You well in Him...”
Six years later, the Monk Maxim was released from prison and sent under church ban to Tver. There he lived under the supervision of the good-natured Bishop Akakios, who treated the innocent victim mercifully. The monk wrote an autobiographical work, “Thoughts with which a sorrowful monk, imprisoned, consoled himself and strengthened himself in patience.” Here are a few words from this vivid work: “Do not grieve, do not grieve, do not grieve, dear soul, that you are suffering without truth, from which it would behoove you to receive all the good, for you used them spiritually, offering them a meal filled with the Holy Spirit..." Only after twenty years of staying in Tver, the monk was allowed to live freely and the church ban was lifted from him. The Monk Maxim the Greek spent the last years of his life in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. He was already about 70 years old. Persecution and labor affected the health of the saint, but his spirit was cheerful; he continued to work. Together with his cell attendant and disciple Neil, the monk diligently translated the Psalter from Greek into Slavic. Neither persecution nor imprisonment broke the Monk Maxim.
The monk reposed on January 21, 1556. He was buried near the northwestern wall of the Spiritual Church of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Many manifestations of grace have been witnessed that took place at the tomb of the Saint, on which the troparion and kontakion to him are written. The face of St. Maxim is often depicted on the icon of the Council of Radonezh Saints.
