Gregentios
Gregentios was the purported archbishop of Ẓafār, the capital of the kingdom of Ḥimyar, in the mid-6th century, according to a hagiographical dossier compiled in the 10th century. This compilation is essentially legendary and fictitious, although a few parts of it are of historical value. Written in Greek, it survives also in a Slavonic translation. The three works in the dossier are conventionally known as the Bios, Nomoi and Dialexis, respectively a biography of Gregentios, the laws he wrote for the kingdom and a debate he had with a Jew. The whole dossier is sometimes known as the Acts of Gregentios.
Name
The name Gregentios is unknown apart from the Bios and related texts. According to the Bios, he received his name from a local holy man. Several later scribes, encountering an unheard of name, changed it to Gregorios. This is the name that appears in all the Slavonic versions, as well as an Arabic translation of the Dialexis. It also appears in the fresco depicting Gregentios in the monastery of Koutsovendis on Cyprus, painted between 1110 and 1118. Other scribal emendations are Gregentinos and Rhegentios.The name has a Latin ending, which may indicate a western origin for the name, but such suffixes had entered vernacular Greek by the time the Bios was written. The name may be derived from Agrigentius, "man from Agrigento", or from a combination of the name Gregory with either Agrigentius or the name of Saint Vincentius. The biography of Gregory of Agrigento was a major source used by the author of the Bios, and an itinerary of Vincentius may also have been used.
The only known persons named after Gregentios are two 19th-century monks of Mount Athos. The first was the archimandrite of Vatopedi in April 1842 and the second a monk of the Skete of Saint Anne who died in 1879 aged 69. Both monastic communities had copies of the Bios and Dialexis of Gregentios.
Overview
The Bios, which Jean-Marie Sansterre called a "hagiographical romance", is divided into nine chapters. While the first eight are vague in their chronology and geography, the ninth draws on superior historical sources and contains more precise details. The early part, which includes an Avar raid on his hometown, may also reflect authentic conditions in the northern Balkans during the later 6th century. The Bios was completed either at Constantinople in the 10th century or in Rome in the 9th century. The Nomoi and Dialexis are later additions. The whole collection, which presents as a unity, was not brought together before the 10th century. The Nomoi may contain some authentic information, since it shares characteristics with legal inscriptions from pre-Islamic South Arabia. The Dialexis, which is a debate between Gregentios and a Jew named Herban, was the most popular part of the work and circulated independently into modern times.''Bios''
Early life in Avaria
According to his Bios, Gregentios was born on 6 December in the late 5th century in the town of Lyplianes in the land of the Avars. His father was named Agapios and his mother Eusebia. At his baptism, he was named after a sage who lived on a nearby mountain. His schooling begins at the age of seven. At the age of ten, he is pushed into a river by a deer. Miraculously saved from drowning, he retires to the desert, where he receives instruction and prophecies about his future from a holy man.When his mother dies, Gregentios is placed in the custody of the married but childless priest who baptised him. During a barbarian invasion, the townspeople flee to the fortress of Korada. Gregentios, who was in the vineyards at the time, manages to sneak in through the Rhomanesios gate while the fortress is besieged. After the barbarians retreat, both Gregentios and his foster mother have prophetic dreams about him. At the urging of a certain Sergios, his foster mother tells her dream to an elder named Niketas, who interprets it as saying that Gregentios will one day convert a fourfold people.
Travels
Gregentios next traveled extensively in northern and central Italy and Sicily before sailing to Alexandria in Egypt. The Bios presents him as travelling from Lyplianes to Moryne, Antenora and Agrigento, then by boat to Pavia, then to Milan and Carthage, then by foot to Rome, then to Augustopolis and finally Alexandria. In its order, timing and means of travel, this itinerary is absurd.Padania and Sicily
Gregentios first departs with the holy man from the desert. They reach Moryne in a single day. There they stay with a man named Sabbatios, where a holy fool named Peter informs Gregentios that his foster parents are searching for him. The holy man and Gregentios leave Moryne after the local bishop learns of the latter's spiritual gifts. In Antenora, they stay in the house of Theodoretos, while the bishop of Moryne searches for him. Bishop Eulogios of Antenora makes Gregentios a deacon and lector. A holy woman named Theodora informs him again of his foster parents' search.With the holy man, Gregentios moves on to Agrigento, leaving the bishop of Antenora also to send searchers after him. He is hosted by the priest Stephanos in the church of the Mother of God outside the walls. He visits the grave of the hermit Eirene, who appears to him and talks to him. He visits two churches in the city, and a woman preaching to a crowd from a balcony predicts that he will go to Egypt and Ḥimyar. The holy man then appears and whisks Gregentios away to Milan. Going by boat, they pass Rome on the way.
In Milan, Gregentios stays with one Niketas, while the holy man moves on to Largention. He visits the grave of Saint Ambrose and begins reading his works. He takes on as a disciple a boy of fourteen named Leon, who later becomes governor of Melike and is assassinated. Gregentios has a vision of the underworld in which he sees Leon among those who died before their time awaiting the Last Judgement. The holy man then returns and the two travel to Carthage, where they stay with one Constantine.
Carthage and Rome
In Carthage, Gregentios meets a woman named Philothea who is regarded as a mute who only barks and sighs. The holy man reveals that this is merely a gift God gave her to ward off a man who tried to seduce her. She speaks to Gregentios clearly and lucidly. During his time in Carthage, he befriends a young man named George and they visit a church dedicated to Saint Anastasia. There, a holy woman identifies Gregentios by name and birthplace. When George asks for the same treatment, she reproaches and names the women he has been sinning with. Another young man, a Thracian named Pothetos, asks Gregentios for spiritual advice. Gregentios writes sixteen homilies that make Pothetos regret his marriage, but Gregentios convinces him to go home to his wife.From Carthage, the holy man takes Gregentios to Rome. On the way, he has a vision of the devil in the valley of Patherolymna. In Rome, they stay with a man named Benedict near the Great Portico. He owns a slave named Elizabeth, who is sexually abused by a demon every night. After Gregentios writes a formula on a piece of papyrus and gives it to her, she is freed from the demon.
One day, Gregentios is visited by Saint Peter, who had been absent from his grave when Gregentios visited it, for he had gone to give comfort to the persecuted Christians of Negra. He tells Gregentios that the time has not yet come for the holy man's identity to be revealed. Later, a woman identifies Gregentios by name as the prophet of the Ḥimyarites. He is also identified by name by the monk Abramios. At the request of a beggar named Zacharias, he heals the eye of a youth named Basil. In ecstasy at the tomb of Saint Paul, he sees a vision of the saint bringing him a pallium.
Gregentios visits a church dedicated to Saint Boniface, whose feast day he will come to share. He meets a fool for Christ named John who throws stones at passersby. He visits a hermit named Michael, who sends him on to a hermit named Artados, who lives atop a mountain beyond the Dry Lakes. Artados prophesies in detail about Gregentios' future in Egypt and Ḥimyar, where he will convert four peoples: pagans, Jews, Ḥimyarites and Maurousians. After a stay of two days, Gregentios returns to Rome, where he meets Pope Felix IV. The holy man rejoins him and they go to Augustopolis.
Alexandria
In Augustopolis, Gregentios stays with a widow named Euphemia. In the market, he meets an Armenian from Artazat, who prophesies his future. After a few days, the holy man and Gregentios board a ship from Leukas for Alexandria. There, Gregentios is greeted by name by a female slave, whose prophesies how the patriarch will call him to be an archbishop. He stays in the house of one Leontios. In Alexandria, he visits a monastery led by a eunuch-abbot named Epiphanios. His prayers chase away a devil who throws stones at a monk named Kosmas. A woman named Archontia greets him by name.Bishop in South Arabia
The last part of the Bios "contains the only clear historical information scattered through the whole" of the Gregentios materials.In 523, the Ḥimyarite king Dhū Nuwās massacres the Christians of Najrān and its leader, Arethas. The Emperor Justin I asks the Ethiopian king Elesboam to lead an expedition against Dhū Nuwās. Elesboam writes to the patriarch of Alexandria, Proterios, for a bishop to evangelize the Ḥimyarites. Saint Mark informs Proterios of Gregentios in a dream. The patriarch consecrates Gregentios as bishop and send him back with the Ethiopian envoys. This takes place after the successful Ethiopian conquest of Ḥimyar.
In Ethiopia, Gregentios stays for a time in the capital, Amlem, before crossing the sea to Medekion and then heading to Taphar and finally Najrān, where he meets the king. He consecrates the churches that the kings has built and installs priests in them at Najrān, Ẓafār, Akana, Atarph, Legmia, Azaki and Iouze.
The Bios describes Elesboam's retirement to a monastery and the miraculous invocation of his name. Gregentios threatens the Ḥimyarites with the death penalty for all those who do not convert, whereupon the hole country becomes Christian. The Dialexis is interposed here, and the end of the Bios follows.
Gregentios remains in Ḥimyar for thirty years, assisting Elesboam's appointed viceroy, Abraha, in building churches. Shortly after Abraha dies and is succeeded by his son Seridos, Gregentios dies on 19 December. He is buried in the cathedral. He is commemorated in the Synaxarion of Constantinople on 19 December.