136 Chapter 3 search finding the place in which he thinks God wants to have him. For the immediate journey after leaving Ephesus in spring (journey 7) there is not much of a motivation given, except that he left Asia with ‘divine approval’ – reminding the audience of the divine inspiration for his journey, which he merely paused in Ephesus – and that he felt an impulse to go to Constantinople.442 Also in later journeys no clear travel motivation is provided for his journeys to Ainos, Christopolis, Thessaloniki, Corinth, Reggio Calabria and Rome. The two journeys before he travelled to Thessaloniki (15 and 16, from Rome to Syracuse and subsequently to Otranto) are accompanied by a travel motivation (see appendices 3 and 4), but also for his journey to Thessaloniki, where he settles for a while and thus seems the end-point of his extensive Mediterranean wanderings, no motivation is given. These extensive Mediterranean travels may thus reflect a search for the right, divinely approved, land to settle in. An indication that Gregory is indeed searching is the representation of journey 11, from Thessaloniki to Corinth. The reason for Gregory’s stay in Thessaloniki is not narrated, but there he would have stayed with an ascetical community headed by a monk named Mark. The hagiographer does not inform us about any details of his stay there, but it is clear from the narrative that joining this ascetical community was not his goal, and at this point Thessaloniki was not yet his final destination: Μείνας οὖν παρ’ αὐτῷ οὐ συχνὰς ἡμέρας ἤλγει καὶ ἀθυμίᾳ κατείχετο, πόθεν ἆρα καὶ ποίᾳ τρίβῳ χρήσαιτο. Φαίνεται οὖν αὐτῷ τις μοναχὸς τὴν ἐπὶ τῇ πρεσβυτέρᾳ Ῥώμῃ διανύων ὁδόν. Τούτῳ συνελθὼν καὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ συμμετασχών, […] μέχρι τῆς περιωνύμου πόλεως Κορίνθου.443 After he had not remained with him [Mark] for many days, he grieved and he was seized by discouragement, from where and what kind of path he should take. Then there appeared a monk who was travelling the road to the old Rome. Going with him and joining him on the road, […] until the renowned city of Corinth. 442 θείᾳ νεύσει τῆς Ἀσίας ἀπάρας τὴν ὁρμὴν εἶχε πρὸς τὸ Βυζάντιον. Life of Gregory of Decapolis 17, lines 10-11. The narrative includes a motivation for Gregory’s desire to go to Constantinople: a political/missionary purpose, that is, to mingle in the iconoclast controversy and support what he saw as the right side. This journey is again framed as a divinely inspired journey – possibly reminding the audience again of his divine revelation to go where he can be of use. The hagiographer indicates that Gregory had a ‘divine longing to fight for the truth’ against the ‘the heresy of accusers of Christians’. However, Gregory does not reach Constantinople, for he is hold up in Prokonessos, and afterwards in the narrative no mention is made again of his former desire to go to Constantinople. Halfway in the narrative a secondary narrator (Athanasius) informs the audience that Gregory once passed through Constantinople from Thessaloniki, while going to Mount Olympus. No explicit motivation for this journey is given, but the audience is informed that Gregory stayed with a monastic community there for a while (after which he returned again to Thessaloniki). In this journey Constantinople is merely functioning as a stop in between on his way to Olympus, and no reference is made to his former desire to be in Constantinople, nor about his intention to mingle in the iconoclast controversy. At the end of the Life Gregory goes again to Constantinople and this time he stays there. The motivation that is narrated is a visit to his former abbot, Symeon, who asked Gregory in a letter to see him (cf. Life of Joseph the Hymnographer 5 by Theophanes; by Ioannes Diakonos 952C-53A). Although the narrative, through Symeon, refers to the iconoclast controversy, this is not the reason for Gregory to travel to Constantinople, nor is he described to mingle in the controversy in any way. 443 Life of Gregory of Decapolis 22.3-9.
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