Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Religious figures biography for wider area of: "HERAKLIO Municipality CRETE" .
1549 - 1601
Patriarch of Alexandreia (1590-1601) and supervisor of the ecumenical throne of Constantinople (1597-1598).
DAFNES (Small town) HERAKLIO
The rich and historical village of Dafnes in the province of Temenous
of Crete has been the birthplace of notable individuals who became the glory of
their land and country. One such individual was Hosios Charalambos who lived during
the last years of the Turkish occupation.
He was born at the village of Dafnes on August 3, 1723 and had three
brothers. Since early childhood he showed signs of celibacy and his friends and
relatives noticed that, as a child, he would retreat to a cave, during rest hours,
and pray to God. His burning desire for asceticism and conscious devotion to the
Commandments made him worthy of visions of the Virgin Mary. His visions led him
to the monastery Kalyviani dedicated in Her memory where he became Her faithful
servant. When he reached the monastery, near the Turkish occupied village of Kalyvia,
he met a number of monks who were not dressed in the traditional cassock for fear
of the Jenissaries. They were crypto-Christians and passed off as poor men.
As soon as the Saint established himself at the monastery he took
an active role in promoting the free practice of faith, uncompromising his principles
and in spite of the threats from Jenissaries. At that time, the lush and fertile
valley of Messara was at the hands of the Turks. The Orthodox Christians were
deprived not only of spiritual but also of corporeal nourishment. The presence
of Hosios Charalambos soothed the pain, he alleviated the grief of the Christians
in the area, and his intervention were very effective. Gradually the Christians
acquired more and more concessions by the Turks.
The Saint served our Virgin Mother and the local population for more
than twenty-five years. The indefatigable servant of our Virgin Mother's monastery
begged Her mercy. The Mother of God lent a willing ear on his burning requests
and fortified him to stand up against the demands and threats from the Jenissaries.
On August 28, 1788, the Saint passed away at the age of 65. We became aware of
the details of his arduous and manifold work by the pious nuns of the monastery.
Our Church celebrates his memory on August 28 each year.
The nuns of the monastery are the best sources of information about
the life and legend of Hosios Charalambos. They can tell us wonderful things,
their personal experiences and about their work of love, which St. Charalambos
left them as a blessing and legacy. However, we must shed our biases; we need
to go through a personal purgatory. It is not enough to simply read about the
lives of Saints; we must also internalise their principles. Jenissaries are lurking
in the dark; they take the form of passions, idols and fads - the modern plague
of our society. Actions speak better than words; therefore, the best way to pay
honour to our Saints is to follow their example. We must sacrifice our ego on
the altar of the common good.
from The Orthodox Messenger, v. 9(7/8)
published bi-monthly by the SA Central Youth
PO Box 269, GLENELG SA 5045 AUSTRALIA
The text is cited November 2003 from The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia
WebPage
HERAKLION (Ancient city) CRETE
4/4/1396 - 1486
Georgius Trapezuntius, (Trapezountios) of Trapezus or Trebizont. The surname of George
Trapezuntius is taken, not from the place of his birth, for he was a native of
Crete (Nic. Comnenus Papadopoli says of Chandace (Candia ?), the capital of the
island), but from the former seat of his family. His contemporary, Cardinal Bessarion,
commonly designates him " Cretensis." He was born 4th April, A. D. 1396,
and came into Italy probably about A. D. 1428, as he was invited into that country
by Franciscus Barbarus, a Venetian noble, to teach Greek in Venice after the departure
of Franciscus Philelphus who left that city in that year. George received the
freedom of the city from the senate. It appears from his commentary on Cicero's
Oration for Q. Ligarius, that he learned Latin (Nic. Comnenus Papadopoli says
at Padua) under Victorinus of Feltre, who was also the teacher of Theodore Gaza.
After a few years he removed from Venice, and, after several ineffectual attempts
to establish himself as a teacher in different towns, settled at Rome, where he
was made professor of philosophy and polite literature, with a salary from the
Papal government; and where his lectures were attended by hearers from Italy,
France, Spain, and Germany. The year of his settlement at Rome is not ascertained.
The account of Boissardus, who says (Icones Viror. Illustr.) " Primus omnium
Graeccrum Graecas literas docuit summa cum laude utpote qui clarebat A. Chr. 1430
Eugenio IV. pontificatum tenente," is not accurate, as Eugenius did not become
pope till 1431. Trithemius says that he flourished at Rome in the time of Eugenius
IV., A. D. 1435, which may be true ; at any rate, he was at Rome before the council
of Florence, A. D. 1439. He had become eminent in Italy before 1437, when he wrote
to the Byzantine emperor Ioannes or John II., exhorting him to disregard the promises
of the council of Basel, and to attend the council which was to be summoned at
Ferrara, in Italy; but it is not clear from what part of Italy the letter was
written. He was secretary, according to Hody, to the two popes, Eugenius IV. and
Nicholas V. (who acceded to tile papal crown A. D. 1447), but according to other
statements he received the appointment from Nicholas V. apparently about A. D.
1450. He occupied for many years a position of unrivalled eminence at Rome, as
a Greek scholar and teacher, and a translator of the Greek authors; but the arrival
of many scholars whom Nicholas invited to that city, and the superior reputation
of the version of Aristotle's Problemuta, made by Theodore Gaza subsequently to
George's version of the same treatise, and the attacks of Laurentius Valla, threw
him into the shade. Valla attacked him because he had censured Quintilian; and
this literary dispute led to a bitter personal quarrel between Valla and George
; but after a time they were reconciled. Poggio, the Florentine, had also a dispute
with George, who boxed his antagonist's ears, in the presence of the pope's other
secretaries, a tolerable proof of the greatness of the provocation, or the irritability
of George's temper. For some time George had Bessarion for his patron, but he
lost his favour by his attack on the reputation of Plato, in maintaining the rival
claims of Aristotle. George ceased to teach as professor in A. D. 1450, perhaps
on his appointment as papal secretary.
Beside the duties of his professorship and his secretaryship, he was
much engaged in translating into Latin the works of Greek authors; but, from the
haste with which they were brought out, arising from his anxiety to receive the
promised payment for them, they appeared in an imperfect or mutilated form.
Having lost the favour of Nicholas, who was alienated from him, as
George himself states, because he refused to allow his versions of certain Greek
philosophers and fathers to appear under the names of others, and perhaps also
by the intrigues of his rivals, lie went to Naples, to the court of Alfonso the
Magnanimous, who gave him a respectable salary; but he was, after a time, reconciled
to the pope by the friendly offices of Franciscus Philelphus, and returned to
Rome about A. D. 1453.
In A. D. 1465 he visited his native island, and from thence went to
Constantinople. On his return by sea from Constantinople to Rome, he was in imminent
danger of shipwreck, and, in his peril, he besought the aid of the martyr, Andreas
of Chios, who had a few months before suffered martyrdom at Constantinople; and
he made a vow that if he escaped and came safely to his destination, he would
write in Latin the narrative of his martyrdom. He fulfilled his vow about two
years afterwards, and embodied in the narrative an account of the circumstances
which led him to write it.
In his old age George's intellect failed, and he sunk into second
childhood. His recollection was completely lost in literary matters, and he is
said to have forgotten even his own name. In this crazy condition he wandered
about the streets of Rome in a worn cloak and with a knotted staff. According
to some accounts, this wreck of his intellect was the result of a severe illness;
others ascribe it to grief and mortification at the trifling reward which he received
for his literary labours. A store is told of him (Boissard, l. c.), that having
received of tile pope the trifling sum of 100 ducats for one of his works which
he had presented to him, he threw the money into the Tiber, saying," Periere
labores, pereat et eorum ingrata merces" ("My labours are lost, let
tile thankless recompense of them perish too"): but the similarity of the
story to an anecdote of Theodore Gaza destroys, or at least much impairs its credibility.
George's son, Andreas Trapezuntius, in his prefatory address to Pope Sixtus IV.,
prefixed to George's translation of the Almagest of Ptolemy, declares that his
life was shortened by the malignity of "his powerful enemy;" but who
this enemy was Andreas does not mention. It could hardly have been Theodore Gaza,
the rival of George, for he died A. D. 1478, while George himself did not die
until A. D. 1485 or 1486, at the age of about 90. He was buried near his residence,
in the Church of the Virgin Mary, formerly the Temple of Minerva at Rome, where
was a monumental inscription in the floor of the church; but it had been so worn
by the feet of the persons frequenting the church, that even in Allatius's time
nothing was visible but the traces of the name.
George of Trebizond left a son, Andreas or Andrew, who, during his
father's lifetime, wrote in his defence against Theodore Gaza; but he was a person
of no talent or eminence. A daughter of Andrew was married to the Roman poet Faustus
Magdalena, who was killed at the sacking of Rome by the troops of Charles V.,
A. D. 1527. Faustus, who was a friend of Leo X., used to speak much of his wife's
grandfather.
The character of George is unfavourably represented by his biographers
Allatius and Boerner, the latter of whom describes him as deceitful, vain, and
envious. The disputes in which lie was involved with the principal scholars with
whom he had any thing to do confirm these unfavourable representations.
The works of George of Trebizond are numerous, consisting partly of
original works, a few in Greek, the rest in Latin; partly of translations from
Greek into Latin. many of them, however, remain in MS. We notice only those that
have been printed; arranging them in classes, and giving the works in each class
chronologically, according to the date of their earliest known publication.
I. ORIGINAL WORKS. I. IN GREEK.
1. Pros ton upselotaton kai Deiotaton Basilea Rhomaion Ioannen ton Palaiologon,
Epistola ad excelsissimum sacratissimumque Regem Romanorum Joannem Palaeologum.
Subjoined by Pontanus, together with a Latin version, to his Latin versions of
Theophylact Simocatta and Phranza, 4to. Ingolstadt, 1604. 2. Pros Ioannen ton
Kouboklesion peri tes ekporeuseos tou Hagiou Pneumatos, Ad Joannem Cuboclesium
de Processione Spiritus Sancti. 3. Peri tes ekporeuseos tou Hagiou Pneumatos,
kai peri tes mias hagias katholikes Ekklesias, tois en Kretei Deiois andrasi hieromonachois
te kai hiereusi, De Processione Spiritus Sancti, et de Una Sancta (Catholica Ecclesia,
Divinis Hominibus, qui in Creta Insula sunt, Hieromonachis et Sacerdotibus. Both
of these were published with a Latin version in the Graecia Orthodoxa of Allatius,
vol. i., Rome, 1652.
II. IN LATIN.
4. Rhetorica, Libri V., fol. Venice, 1470. This date is fixed by the chief bibliographical
authorities, but is not given in the work. The Rhetorica has been often reprinted.
Valentine Curio, in the preface to his edition, 4to. Basil, 1522, states that
the work was left by the author in so imperfect a state that its revision had
cost the editor much labour. He adds that it embodied a translation of a considerable
part of the rhetorical works of Hermogenes. 5. De Octo Partibus Orationis ex Prisciano
Compendium, 4to. Milan, 1472. The same work appears to have been printed in 1537
in 8vo. at Augsburg, under the title of De Octo Partibus Orationis Compendium,
omitting ex Prisciano; though some of our authorities hesitate about identifying
the two works. 6. De Artificio Ciceronianae Orationis pro Q. Ligario (sometimes
described as Expositio in Orationem Ciceronis pro Q. Ligario); printed with the
commentaries of some other writers on some of the orations of Cicero, fol. Venice,
1477, and several times reprinted. 7. Commentarius in Philippica Ciceronis, 4to.
Venice. The year of publication is not known. These two works have been reprinted
in some collections of commentaries on Cicero's orations. 8. Dialectica, 4to.
Strasburg, 1509. Twelve editions of this little work were published between 1509
and 1536. The work entitled Compendiuum Dialectices ex Aristotele, by George of
Trebizond, published without note of time or place, is probably the same work.
9. Comparaitiones Philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis, 8vo. Venice, 1523. We
are not aware that the work was printed before this date, but it must have been
circulated in some form, as it was the work which drew upon George the anger of
Cardinal Bessarion, who published a reply to it under the title Adversus Calumniatorem
Platonis, Libri Quinque, fol. Rome, 1469. In this reply he criticises George's
translation of Plato's treatise De Legibus, which has never been printed. 10.
De Antisciis in quorum Rationem Fata sua rejicit. 11. Cur Astrologorum Judicia
plerumque falluntur. These two works were printed with Omar De Nativitatibus,
8vo. Venice, 1525. 12. Expositio in illud "Si eum volo manere donec veniam,"
8vo. Basil. 1543; and reprinted in both editions of the Orthodoxographa (Basil.
1555 and 1569) and in the Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. vi. ed. Paris, 1576. In this
exposition of a passage (c. xxi. 22) in the Gospel of John, George contended that
the evangelist was still living on the earth. 13. In Claudii Ptolemaei Centum
Sententias (or Centiloquium) Commentarius, with a reprint of Nos. 10 and 11, and
with the treatise of Joannes Pontanus, Quatenus credendum sit Astrologis, 8vo.
Cologne, 1544. 14. Acta Beati Andreue Chii; printed in the De Probatis Sanctorum
Vitis of Surius, Maii, 29., Cologne, 1618, and in the Acta Sanctorum of Bollandus,
Maii, tom. vii.
II. TRANSLATIONS. 15. Eusebius Pamphili de Praeparatione Evangelica
a Georgio Trapezuntio traductus, fol. Venice, 1470. In this version the whole
of the fifteenth book is omitted; yet it obtained great reputation, as was shown
by its being reprinted nine or ten times during the fifteenth century. 16. Joannes
Chrysostomus super Matthaeum, Fol. Cologne, 1487. There is an edition without
note of time or place, but which, from the character of the type, is supposed
to be printed by Mentelius of Strasburg, whose other works bear date from 1473
to 1476. This translation is not wholly original ; in some of the homilies it
is only the ancient version of Anianus revised. 17. Rhetoricorum Aristotelis ad
Theodecion Libri Tres. A version of this work of Aristotle, which some of our
authorities state to be by George of Trebizond, but which does not bear his name
in the title, was published in fol., Leipsic, 1503, and Venice, 1515; but his
version was certainly printed, at Paris, 8vo. 1539, and with the rest of Aristotle's
works at Basel, 1538. 18. Opus insigne Beati Patris Cyrilli Patriarchae Alexandriae
in Evangelium Joannis, fol. Paris, 1508. Of the twelve books of which this work
consists George translated the first four and the last four; the remainder were
translated by Jodocus Clichtoveus, who edited the work. 19. Joannis Chrysostomi
de Laudibus et Excellentia Sancti Pauli Homiliae quatuor per Georq. Trapezuntium
e Graeco traductae, fol. Leipzig, 1510. 20. Praeclarum Opus Cyrilli Alex. qui
Thesaurus nuncupatur, fol. Paris, 1513. This version of the work of Cyril on the
Trinity has been often reprinted. 21. Almagesti Ptolemaei Libri XIII.,fol. Venice,
1515. 22. Sti Gregorii Nysseni De Vitae Perfection, sive Vita Moysis, 4to. Vienna,
1517. 23. Sti Basilii Mayni adversus Apologiam Eunomii Antirrheticus, Libri V.
The version of the third book was printed with the Acta Concilii Florentini, and
other pieces, fol. Rome, 1526; and the whole version has been printed in some
Latin and Graeco-Latin editions of the works of Basil. 24. Historia Sanctorum
Barlaam et Josaphal, subjoined to the works of Joannes Damascenus, fol. Basel,
1548. So wretchedly is this version executed, that doubts have been cast upon
its authorship. The reputation of George as a translator is, however, very low.
Beside the errors which resulted from haste, he appears to have been very unfaithful,
adding to his author, or cutting out, or perverting passages almost at will.Among
his unpublished translations are several of Aristotle's works, including the Problemata,
Physica, De Anima, De Animalibus, De Generatione et Corruptione; also the De Legibus
and the Parmenides of Plato. His version of Plato's work, De Legibus, was severely
criticised by Bessarion in his Adversus Calumniatorem Platonis; and his version
of Aristotle's De Animalibus is said to have been used by Theodore Gaza, though
without acknowledgment, in the preparation of his own version. (Boissard, Icones
Viror. Illustr., pars i.; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii., Appendix, by Gery and Wharton;
Hody, De Graecis Illustribus Linguae Graecae, &c., Instauratoribus; Boernerus,
De Doctis Hominibus Graecis, Litterarum Graecarum in Italia Instauratoribus; Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. iii., vol. vii., vol. viii., vol. ix., vol. xi.; Allatius, Diatrib.
de Georgiis, apud Fabric. vol. xii.; Panzer, Annales Typographici.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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