Venerable
Venerable Maximus the Greek
ок. 1470 — 1556
Also known as: Михаил Триволис
Venerable Maximus the Greek, in the world Michael Trivolis — an Athonite monk invited to Moscow to correct liturgical texts, persecuted for decades on false charges, and glorified among the saints in 1988.
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the dates August 13/26, previously listed in this saint's contaminated date set, actually belong to Venerable Maximus the Confessor (7th c., already documented in our database as a separate entry, maximus_the_confessor) — the coincidence with Maximus the Greek's own repose date (January 21/February 3) evidently caused the dates of several "Maxim" entries in this batch to be mixed up; the erroneous dates have been removed.
Venerable Maximus the Greek was born around 1470 in the Greek city of Arta into a noble family under the name Michael Trivolis. He studied in Italy (Padua, Florence, Venice, Milan) among Renaissance humanists (Aldus Manutius, Janus Lascaris), and was deeply influenced by Savonarola's preaching in Florence. After Savonarola's execution (1498), he returned to the Orthodox world and was tonsured on Mount Athos, at Vatopedi Monastery (c. 1505-1507), under the name Maximus.
In 1515/1516, Grand Prince Vasily III of Moscow requested a learned monk from Athos to translate and correct Church Slavonic liturgical and scriptural texts, which had accumulated centuries of scribal errors. Maximus arrived in Moscow in 1518 and, despite initially not knowing Russian or Church Slavonic, translated the Psalter, corrected liturgical books, and produced numerous theological and polemical works, becoming a prominent intellectual figure at court.
His open support for the "non-possessor" faction opposing monastic land ownership, along with his criticism of Muscovite policy (including Vasily III's divorce), earned him powerful enemies. He was condemned by church councils in 1525 and 1531 (on charges of heresy, textual corruption, and espionage for the Turks) and imprisoned — first at Volokolamsk Monastery, then under strict confinement at the Otroch Monastery in Tver. He was gradually rehabilitated: readmitted to communion from 1541, and in his final years transferred to Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where he died in 1556. He was formally canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988.
His feast is kept on January 21/February 3 (repose) and June 21/July 4 (uncovering of relics in 1996).