Venerable Maximus the Greek

Maximus the Greek, also known as Maximos the Greek or Maksim Grek (Greek: Μάξιμος ὁ Γραικός; Russian: Максим Грек; c. 1475 – c. 1556), was a Greek monk, publicist, writer, scholar, and translator active in Russia. He is also called Maximos the Hagiorite (Μάξιμος ὁ Ἁγιορίτης), as well as Maximus the Philosopher. His signature was Maximus Grecus Lakedaimon (lit. Maximus the Greek of, and originating from, Lakedaimonia) and his family origins were probably from Mystras, a location in Laconia, which was the geographical site of Ancient Sparta in the Peloponnese. Canonised in 1988, he is venerated as a saint by Eastern Orthodox Christians; with a feast day on 21 January. Maximus was born Michael Trivolis (Greek: Μιχαήλ Τριβώλης, Russian: Михаил Триволис) c. 1475 in Arta, then in the Ottoman Empire, the scion of a noble Greek family with ties to the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople, and originating from Sparta. Both Maximus's parents were Christian Greeks; his mother was Irene and his father, Manuel, was a voivode. Irene and Manuel left Constantinople together for Arta and the latter may have been a Byzantine military governor of Arta before the city fell to the Ottomans in 1449. Demetrios Trivolis, Manuel's brother and Maximus's uncle, was a Greek scribe who self-identified as "a Peloponnesian from Sparta" (Greek: Πελοποννήσιος εκ Σπάρτης). In 1461–1462, Demetrios reproduced a manuscript of Plato's Timaeus while in Corfu and in 1465, he copied Plotinus's Enneads while in Crete; The Trivolis family was later associated with the Palaiologos dynasty in Mystras. Maximus studied on the island of Corfu under the supervision of John Moschos and John Lascaris and later went with Lascaris to Florence (in 1492 or 1493) and continued his studies in Bologna, Florence, Ferrara, Milan, Padua, and Venice. While in Italy, he studied ancient languages, as well as ecclesiastic and philosophic works (especially Neoplatonism).