Then, I don't know how, Mark had a bodily illness. For this reason, we came to the Holy Lavra for healing. Knowing his great virtue, the fathers there did not want to let him go, for it would have been unbearable for them. I, moved by God, came to the honorable Iveron Monastery, and although it seemed to some that we were separated from each other bodily, staying in different places, but in the soul, by the grace of God, uniting and holding back the good, we continued to be together. Wherever we were, we were always connected to each other, and each of us kept the memory of the other with great love. Blessed Mark was glorified by God, receiving great glory every day with the gifts and enlightenment which he was vouchsafed from Him.

 And now we will tell you about another disciple of the saint, the praiseworthy James. With the help of the teachings and instructions of the divine Gregory, he ascended to such a height of virtue that he was vouchsafed to accept the episcopal dignity, becoming bishop of Serve.

 A little later, Aaron came to the Holy Mountain, and was received by the Monk Gregory, who pitied him very much, because he was blind. The saint told him that in His extreme goodness God became Man in order to call upon our forefather Adam, who fell through disobedience, to free him from the tyranny of the devil, to bring him to the first initial state of nobility and to raise him up from the corruption of death. Blindness of the body not only cleanses the eyes of the soul, but also gives eternal light to those who endure it with thanksgiving and undoubtedly hope in God. When we, with the help of God and His grace, purify our hearts with fervent prayer and unceasing supplication, then our mind and thought, which are, as it were, the two eyes of the soul, are enlightened. When our spiritual eyes are enlightened and opened, then man, who has become spiritual in God, sees naturally, as Adam saw before the transgression.

 Hearing such instructions and knowing them with his mind, Aaron began to beseech God with heartfelt contrition: "O Lord my God, Who hast bowed down to the ground, Who hast healed the paralytic with a single word, Who hast opened the eyes of the blind, look upon me with Thy indescribable kindness, and do not despise my unfortunate soul, bent down by the mire of sin and lying on the ground, with despair. O Lover of mankind, open the eyes of my heart, that Thy fear may dwell in it, that he may understand Thy commandments and do Thy will." Praying to God in this way from the depths of his soul, Aaron was heard and his spiritual eyes were opened, so that not only did he no longer need a guide, but, sitting in his cell, he sometimes predicted what was going to happen, for example: "Let us go out into the street, because (so-and-so) an elder or (so-and-so) brother is coming to us." Surprisingly, this is exactly what he predicted, and it happened. When the day of remembrance of some great saint or the Lord's feast was to come, he spoke about it long ago, having not been taught by anyone and having received no such information from anyone. When asked how he knew about this, Aaron replied that before the feast a great sanctification and glory descended into his soul from God, and from God all his knowledge. Thus, one day, when they were going with Jacob to a certain monk and were at a distance of two miles from his cell, enlightened by God, Aaron said to James: "The monk to whom we are going holds in his hands the Holy Four Gospels and reads this verse from it." When they went to the cell and questioned the monk, they found that he had indeed read the verse that Aaron was talking about.

 It is necessary to tell about the other disciples of the monk: Moses, Longinus, Cornelius, Isaiah and Clement. They began to live according to God with great zeal and labored much in sweat and labor, in order to acquire all the virtues. Constantly practicing in the salvific practice of mental prayer and having gained a multitude of disciples, they died peacefully, having given up their souls into the hands of God. Since I have remembered the wondrous Clement, it is only fair to tell you a little about what God gave him.

 This Clement was a sheep shepherd, a native of Bulgaria. One night, while he was watching over the sheep, he saw a strange strong light illuminating the entire flock. Greatly delighted, he began to wonder where such a light could have come from: perhaps the sun had suddenly dawned and risen, while he had taken a short nap on his staff. While he was thus pondering, the light began to recede little by little and ascended to Heaven. And again there was night and darkness. Greatly surprised at this, Clement came to the Holy Mountain and, finding in the skete Morfinus, a simple monk, but pious and virtuous, became a novice with him, but learned from him only the prayer: "Lord, have mercy." After a while, that light began to appear again little by little and filled the soul of Clement with Divine grace. Clement was a very simple and unsophisticated man, and he listened only to God. Since the elder ordered him to confess all his thoughts, he told him about the vision that had occurred to him, asking him to reveal what it meant. Unable to do this, the elder together with Clement went to the divine Gregory, to whom they told everything, fervently asking to receive them and enroll them in their brotherhood. Imitating Christ and desiring salvation for all, the monk received them with joy and, separating them from all, taught them all that was necessary for the salvation of the soul, commanding them to have patience, humility, and everlasting hope in God, from Whom all good is for men, never to despise the rule given to him and to constantly think about death. Accepting with great humility what was commanded by the divine father, Clement promised to tirelessly fulfill everything. He began to asceticize in his work according to God with such zeal and diligence, that soon his mind was enlightened by the light of Divine grace, and he ascended not only to the contemplation of existence, but, ascending from contemplation to contemplation, he attained the state of the supernatural. If a soul that is simple by nature truly begins to work for God and zealously devotes itself to Him, it becomes God-like, receives rest and enters into a state of higher nature. Clement related that when the divine Gregory sent him to the Holy Lavra, then every time the fathers who asceticized there reverently began to sing "More honorable than the Cherubim...", a bright cloud descended from Heaven and miraculously covered the Lavra until the singing ended, after which the cloud again rose into Heaven.

 Clement received great spiritual benefit from the teachings of the monk, and not only he, but also all those who heard his divine words and accepted them with love and reverence. Almost all the monks came to him, being completely unable to remain without his teachings, for the monk was vouchsafed to receive from God great spiritual wisdom and grace, which benefited his listeners, as I was told by those who experienced it themselves. That God-bearing father offered his disciples spiritual and God-pleasing conversations, which were accompanied by Divine grace. When he began to speak about the purification of the soul and about the fact that man becomes a god by grace, then a wondrous and excessive Divine love came into our souls. Just as when the great Peter taught the centurion in the house of Cornelius, and the Holy Spirit descended upon them, so it happened to those whom the divine Gregory taught, according to the testimony of his disciples themselves. The ever-blessed one exerted many efforts to persuade all the hermit fathers and coenobitic fathers to engage in mental prayer and the preservation of the mind.

 However, the devil, the hater of good, did not calm down, but raised up against the monk the most educated monks, who, like ordinary people, were subjected to passion. They envied the divine Gregory and made it their goal to expel him from the Holy Mountain. Through ignorance, others also agreed with them, who, confusing stubbornness with pride and arrogance, said to the monk: "Do not teach us this path, of which we know nothing," meaning mental prayer and guarding the mind. Seeing that instead of peace envy flares up, and good gives way to malice, the monk with one of his disciples and a certain ascetic named Isaiah, who was the first of all to build himself a cell in the skete of Magula, departed from there to Protatus. Let us say a few words about Isaiah. This blessed one suffered a lot from the Latin-minded emperor Michael Palaiologos, because he did not want to communicate with the then Patriarch John Vekkos because of his innovations in Orthodox teaching. Moved by zeal for God, Isaiah struggled much for Orthodoxy, tirelessly taught, exerted all his diligence and zeal in order to unite everyone even more closely with the Orthodox Church of Christ. Together with this wondrous disciple the monk also came to Protatus, but the archpriest of that time, although he received them with joy, nevertheless began, as if in a friendly way, to mock the divine Gregory. He did this not because he taught about sobriety and mental prayer, for how can one resist the truth and the monk, who was a spirit-bearing man and clearly preached about God for the common good, but because he taught without his permission. Learning of the extraordinary virtue of this holy man and the loftiness of his Divine teaching, the prost forsook all his ridicule and, having been reconciled to him, gained great benefit for himself. Conversing with Gregory and Isaiah, the prost said: "Today I am conversing, as it were, with the chief apostles Peter and Paul." Seeing with what care the archpriest of the Holy Mountain received them, and also learning of his praise, the other fathers also came to know the truth, and from that time on, all, both hermits and coenobitics, received with great spiritual joy the divine Gregory as a common teacher. However, because of the multitude of people who came to him, it was not easy for the monk to find peace. Therefore, loving silence, he changed his abode many times. Sometimes he went to the venerable monastery of St. Simon and remained silent in its vicinity, for the road there was impassable, and sometimes he was silent in a deep wooded gorge called Dzhegreia. And in these desolate places he built cells, away from the road, and in them he often hid himself from those who came to him, because he was very fond of hermitage and did not want to interrupt his spiritual contemplation even for one hour.

 But what happened next? Once a barbarian tribe of the Hagarites suddenly attacked the Holy Mountain and, seizing all the monks asceticizing there, turned them into slavery. Contemplating, on the one hand, the great evil that had befallen him when he had been enslaved by these barbarians, of which I have already spoken at the beginning, and on the other hand, that the noise made had scattered his mind, and the barbarians had disturbed his silence, the monk decided to go again to Sinai, in order to remain silent there on the top of the mountain. Together with several disciples, we went to Thessaloniki, and then, two months later, secretly from everyone, only with me and another monk, we boarded a ship and sailed to Chios. There we met a monk on his way to Jerusalem. I do not know what he said to the monk, but it prevented us from going to Sinai. We went to Mytilene, from where, after spending a little time on Mount Lebanon and unable to find silence, we came to Constantinople. Because of the harsh winter, we spent six months there, hiding like wanderers. Emperor Andronicus Palaiologos, a zealot and champion of Orthodoxy, having learned that Gregory was in Constantinople, graciously invited him to come to him. The emperor had long desired to see the ascetic, for he knew of the resounding glory of the monk. Andronicus even promised to give him rich gifts, but the saint, avoiding human glory, did not agree to come to the emperor. Leaving Constantinople, we set sail for Sozopol, where we did not stay long, for a certain monk Amiralis, who dwelt in the deep wilderness of Paroria, learned of us and invited the Monk Gregory to him. Having visited Amiralis, the monk thought that the place here was quiet and would contribute to the fulfillment of his God-pleasing purpose, and he decided to settle there. The monk and his disciples built small cells with their own hands, which were located at a distance of one mile both from the place where Amiralis asceticized, who also had his disciples, and from each other. Among them was a monk named Luke, who at the very beginning was a disciple of the divine Gregory on the Holy Mountain. Now the passion of envy came upon him, and he could not restrain himself at all, because of the malice that lurked in him. Once, having greatly insulted Saint Gregory, he with great shamelessness rushed at him with a knife. If the other disciples of Amiralis had not interfered, the unfortunate man would have committed murder. The Monk Gregory, as a true disciple of the meek and peace-loving Christ, became in this case a model to follow, and not only was he not imbued with hatred, but he was not in the least embarrassed and did not begin to plot any evil against Luke. He showed him great love and even thanked him. For the sake of Luke's spiritual benefit, the monk wrote one hundred and fifty active and contemplative chapters on sobriety.

 Спустя некоторое время и сам Амиралис, под воздействи­ем началозлобного врага, позавидовал святому и, разгорев­шись гневом, бесчинно кричал на него и пугал, что если тот как можно скорее не уйдет отсюда, то он подкупит множество разбойников, которые придут и убьют всех, что потом он и сделал. Вот такую награду божественному Григорию воздал притворявшийся монахом, однако напрасно трудился безумный, ибо Бог, по молитвам преподобного, сохранил нас всех невредимыми. Уйдя оттуда вместе со всеми монахами, что собрались ради него, божественный отец Григорий при­шел на гору, называемую Катакекримени. Через несколько дней тот завистливый Амиралис подослал разбойников, ко­торые, напав на нас как львы, всех схватили, а преподобного (о горе!) связали платком и стали искать деньги у того, кото­рый еще с юного возраста не желал иметь ни одного обола. Ничего не обнаружив, они нас отпустили.

 Поскольку зависть полностью овладела душой Амирали­са, а страсть эта не проходит легко, мы ушли оттуда и при­шли снова в Созополь, откуда в декабре вернулись в Кон­стантинополь. Пробыв там до весны, мы пришли вместе с преподобным на Святую Гору. Лаврские монахи приняли его с большой радостью, почитая приход его за духовное торжество. Близ Священной Лавры, в разных местах, святой выстроил несколько келий. Он попросил у Лавры разреше­ния занять и некоторые кафизмы пригодные для безмол­вия, и, подвизаясь там, наедине беседовал с Единым Богом. По попущению Божию, варварское племя опять ворвалось на Святую Гору. Стало невозможно безмолвствовать за пре­делами монастыря и божественный отец вошел в Лавру, но беседы с монастырскими отвлекали его от безмолвия. Силь­но печалясь по этому поводу и желая уединения, восхожде­ния и созерцания, совершенно не имея покоя, он, никому не сообщив, взял ученика и на корабле отплыл в Адрианополь. Затем сушей пришел в Парорию, где, собрав множество мо­нахов, поселился на горе Катакекрименской. Там жили так­же и разбойники. При этом любой благоразумный сразу подумает, что это было от лукавого, который завидовал добру и боялся, чтобы преподобный не сделал эту пустыню обителью монахов для непрестанного воспевания Бога, что как мы видим сегодня, по благодати Христовой, и произошло. Он не только основал Великую Лавру, но и способствовал за селению пустыни монахами. Кроме того, по благоволению Святого Бога, прославляющего божественного мужа, из-за множества собравшихся монахов были построены три другие Лавры в пещере Месомильской и в месте, называемом Пэзува. Человек Божий, уповая на Бога, нисколько не устра­шился искушения от разбойников, но замыслил доброе. Через монахов, которые стали его учениками, он сообщил болгарскому царю Александру, что ушел со Святой Горы из-за частых набегов варварского племени агарян и, придя в эту пустыню ради безмолвия, снова обрел искушение в виде разбойников. Зная, что царь боголюбив, благочестив, милостив и во всем помогает находящимся в нуждах, пре­подобный попросил его с помощью дарованных ему от Бога мудрости и силы помешать нападениям разбойников.

 И тот дивный царь, весьма почитая добродетель и добро­детельных мужей, с радостью воспринял слова преподобно­го, тотчас же послал людей, которые построили крепкую вы­сокую башню, церковь, кельи и стойла для животных. Царь позаботился и обо всем другом, что было необходимо мона­хам, ибо это утверждают все те, кто ходит туда ради пользы душевной и на поклонение. Александр послал много денег и продуктов для находившихся там монахов, пожертвовал монастырю деревни, озеро с садком для разведения рыб, бы­ков, бесчисленное количество овец и множество мулов. Та­ковы были удивительные и щедрые дары Болгарского царя.

 Желанным делом для божественного Григория всегда было по-апостольски обходить вселенную и своим учением привлекать всех христиан к восхождению к Богу посредством деятельной добродетели и возводя их на высоту созерцания частым повторением умной молитвы. О великом Григории можно сказать словами Писания: «По всей земле проходит звук их, и до пределов вселенной слова их» (Пс. 18: 5), потому что он всем сердцем желал просветить всех светом Пресвятого Духа и не оставил почти ни одного места, не только у ромеев и болгар, но даже и у сербов, да и у других, куда бы ни распространилось через него и его учеников доброе учение о безмолвии и умной молитве. И как на Святой Горе он привел отцов к строгому и чистому безмолвию и умной молитве, так и везде, куда бы ни доходил он сам или его ученик, они пере­давали всем христианам сие богоугодное дело умной молит­вы. Даже из Парории, глубокой пустыни, куда пришел пре­подобный, он сделал духовную мастерскую, изменяя прихо­дивших к нему к лучшему. Так, например, случилось с теми дикими разбойниками и убийцами, злобный нрав которых он переменил на кроткий одним лишь своим видом, сделав их пастухами овец. Те, кто были раньше жестокими и крово­жадными, совершенно изменялись по молитвам преподобного, и, припав к его ногам, катались по земле в горячем со­крушении и покаянии. Что они только при этом ни говорили и ни делали, выставляя на обозрение свою прошлую жизнь, что свидетельствовало об их душевном исправлении. Боль­шинство из них, просветившись умом с помощью поучений божественного отца, истинно поработали Богу и стяжали спасение для своей души.

 Таковы лишь немногие из многочисленных подвигов свя­того Григория. Таковой была его жизнь и подвиги по Богу блаженной его души, в которых он пребыл до последнего своего вдоха. Немного поболев, он предал блаженную свою душу в руки Божий и взошел на Небеса, чтобы в совершен­стве насладиться Желанным Христом, Которому слава, и честь, и поклонение со Отцем и Святым Духом, во веки ве­ков. Аминь.