Symeon of Grigoriou

Saint Symeon of Grigoriou, abbot of the Grigoriou Monastery and a venerable monk, was Symeon Angelidis of Tripoli. He was tonsured a monk at the Monastery of Saint Paul, was invited to Grigoriou as a deacon and in the same year, at twenty-⁠nine, was ordained priest and elected abbot. He led the monastery from 1859 to 1905. He had spiritual gifts, a keen mind, strong will and tireless diligence. Through his work the monastery's enormous debt of 170 thousand gold groschen was paid off, and all the buildings were repaired. He added a new wing, forming another court with a new gate and doubling the area of the monastery. He also built dependencies outside the Holy Mountain, which in the early twentieth century served as support points for the Greeks in the struggle for Macedonia. He even travelled to Wallachia for support. In 1892 he built the churches of the Holy Unmercenaries and of Saint Spyridon. Patriarch Joachim III called him in 1901 a "reformer" and "restorer" of the monastery, and in the monastery he is counted as the fourth founder, after Saint Gregory the New, the abbots Spyridon and Joachim Makrigenis. Father Moses numbers him among the venerable abbots who were new founders. He reposed in 1905. He is honoured by the faithful, without synodal canonization.