Gregory Gravanos of Nisyros

Saint Gregory Gravanos of Nisyros was a monk of the Kollyvades movement and fell asleep on the island of Ikaria on 22 April 1812.

He was born on the Aegean island of Nisyros. He lived many years in asceticism on Mount Athos, then followed his elder, the venerable Nephon (+1809), to the islands of Naxos, Samos and Patmos, until they settled in Leipsoi in the Dodecanese. There they founded a hesychasterion dedicated to the Annunciation in the village of Romani. Because of the threat of pirates, they went to Fournoi and then to Ikaria. From there Gregory went to Patmos, where he met Makarios Notaras. They lived together in asceticism at the Kathisma of the Mother of God in Koumana. Later he moved to the place called Grava on Patmos, from which he was given the name Gravanos. There, with his disciple Theoktistos from Sofia, he built a kathisma with a church dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God.

His fame as an ascetic and spiritual father spread beyond Patmos. Many confessed to him, among them a notorious thief who hastened to him and gave him everything he had stolen. Even Patriarch Neophytos VII of Constantinople, exiled to Patmos, came to him at Grava and had him as his confessor. In 1810, grown old, he went to Ikaria to escape an unfortunate incident: the thief believed that Gregory had betrayed him and threatened to kill him, though it was his disciple Theoktistos who had naively given up the thief's name. In Ikaria he reposed and was buried at the Monastery of the Annunciation on 22 April 1812. In 1815 his relics were translated, and they became a source of many miracles.

He is commemorated on 22 April, according to the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style). His hymn calls him the offspring of Nisyros and the adornment of Patmos.