Gregory the Wise

Holy Hierarch Gregory the Wise, Archbishop of Rostov, was first hegumen of the Transfiguration Spaso-⁠Kamenny monastery in Vologda. On 19 March 1396 he was ordained in Moscow as bishop of the see of Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Uglich, Ustyug and Mologa. The ordination was performed by Metropolitan Cyprian of Kiev, with the bishops Euphrosynus of Suzdal, Saint Arsenius of Tver, Theognostus of Ryazan, Gregory of Kolomna and Theodosius of Podolsk.

In 1397 he visited Ustyug, one of the main missionary centres of the Perm land. In July 1401 he took part in the council convened in Moscow by Metropolitan Cyprian, to which nine hierarchs came from the western and eastern lands of the Metropolis of Kiev. In 1402, according to the Life of Venerable Dionysius of Glushitsa, Bishop Gregory blessed Dionysius as hegumen of the communal monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God, founded by him. He led the funeral service of Metropolitan Cyprian, who died on 16 September 1406, in the Dormition cathedral in Moscow.

Bishop Gregory became known as a builder of churches in the diocese. In 1411, at his own expense, he almost entirely rebuilt the Dormition cathedral, which had collapsed in 1403 in a fire. In 1413 he built the church of the Annunciation at Berezhki. He founded near Rostov the Saint George men's monastery at Belogostitsy, in whose church there was an ancient wonderworking Kazan icon of the Mother of God. On 22 March 1416, with Metropolitan Photius and the bishops Mitrophan of Suzdal, Anthony of Tver, Timothy of Sarai and Isaac of Perm, in the presence of Grand Prince Vasily I and his brothers George and Constantine Dmitrievich, he took part, in the cathedral of the Archangel in Moscow, in the ordination of Archbishop Simeon of Novgorod.

He reposed in the Lord on 3 May 1416 and was buried in the Dormition cathedral at Rostov. His name was entered in the cathedral's synodikon. Today the place of his burial is unknown. In manuscripts and other historical materials of the nineteenth century he appears as a locally venerated saint, and the handwritten menologia call him the Wise. His canonisation is confirmed by the inclusion of his name in the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl, whose celebration was established on 10 March 1964, on the initiative of Archbishop Nikodim (Rotov) of Yaroslavl and Rostov.