Archimandrite Grethenios (ca. 1399-1400)

by Caroline Stone and John Ramsey (See Chinese translation)

Archimandrite Grethenios made a pilgrimage to the Middle East in ca. 1399-1400. An account of his journey is recorded in a 16th century manuscript kept in the Archaeological Museum in Kyiv. Apart from what is recorded in the account of his pilgrimage, nothing else appears to be known about his life.

The account says that he was from the Monastery of the Holy Virgin, but it does not say where. There is a monastery by that name founded in the 12th century in Vladimir, in an old city east of Moscow. It seems likely that this is the monastery from which he came.

There is a brief reference to him in Louis de Combes, The Finding of the Cross (Chicago: Benziger Brothers, 1907), p. 55, but it simply refers to the 16th century manuscript mentioned above.

From his account we are able to compile quite a detailed itinerary of his pilgrimage, including the distances from place to place. He measured the distances in the traditional Russian unit, the verst, which is usually taken as roughly equivalent to 1km or 0.66 miles.