Steven Avery
Administrator
NOTES TO COLLATE
imaginary twice
fantasies
Prodromus
Tischendorf and czar
Antoniada Academy
Kaposistrias
monastery. He was known especially in the south Aegean as a teacher on Poros in the 1820s, and
originally from Syme. This proved far more difficult to ascertain from England in the 1860s. The lie
Maybe you got confused by the Kevin McGrane confusions in the Bill Cooper book.
that it was his (imaginary) uncle Benedict's idea to make it a gift for the Tsar twenty years previously.p. 52
McGrane acknowledged he only meant "imaginary" to apply to whether he was specifically the Uncle of Simonides. -
Terrible writing.
Uspensky also mentions the late hierodeacon Benedict. p . 63
Then there is the account of monk Parfeny Ageev, (Aggeev) who was at the Panteleimon monastery at exactly the same time as Simonides (1839-41), and wrote copious details (published in 1855) about hegumen Gerasim and hierodeacon Benedict. Parfeny twice records that Benedict was 106 years on his last appearance before his death,152 and thus Benedict was about 90 years the senior of Simonides. Simonides' Simonides' tale that Benedict was his mother's brother was thus patent nonsense,153 and the alleged family relationship was in any case contradicted by many witnesses. p. 64-65
In fact, it is recorded that both Benedict and Prokopios Dendrinos at the St Panteleimon monastery were trained at the Athoniada Academy on Mount Athos in the mid-1750s, which requires that Benedict was born no later than the 1730s, which is consistent with his being 106 in 1840. p. 65
And as for the hegumen Gerasim, it has never before crossed his mind, nor we trust, by the help of God, will he in future ever entertain the idea of making forged manuscripts. Benedict, who died in 1841, was neither Simonides' uncle, nor a relative, but only a compatriot.159
198 In 1843 Benedict had been dead only a very few years and the Greek readership around the Aegean
at that time would easily be able to establish that Benedict had never been hegumen of the Rossikon
monastery. He was known especially in the south Aegean as a teacher on Poros in the 1820s, and
originally from Syme. This proved far more difficult to ascertain from England in the 1860s. The lie
that Benedict was the hegumen of the Panteleimon monastery appears in a letter from Simonides to
The Athenaeum (issue December 21,1861, p.849): '[M]y late uncle...Benedict, the confidential adviser
and spiritual father of John Capo-dTstrias; and after his death, Superior of the Monastery St.
Panteleimon (Rosicon), in Mount Athos'. Kapodistrias died in 1831, and, as we have proved, Gerasim
was hegumen continuously from 1821 to 1875. The lie that Benedict was Simonides' uncle (mother's
brother) goes back at least to 1841, however, as Amphilocius attests. It was a 'plausible lie' since both
Benedict and Simonides' mother Maria hailed from Syme.
imaginary twice
fantasies
Prodromus
Tischendorf and czar
Antoniada Academy
Kaposistrias
monastery. He was known especially in the south Aegean as a teacher on Poros in the 1820s, and
originally from Syme. This proved far more difficult to ascertain from England in the 1860s. The lie
Maybe you got confused by the Kevin McGrane confusions in the Bill Cooper book.
that it was his (imaginary) uncle Benedict's idea to make it a gift for the Tsar twenty years previously.p. 52
McGrane acknowledged he only meant "imaginary" to apply to whether he was specifically the Uncle of Simonides. -
Terrible writing.
Uspensky also mentions the late hierodeacon Benedict. p . 63
Then there is the account of monk Parfeny Ageev, (Aggeev) who was at the Panteleimon monastery at exactly the same time as Simonides (1839-41), and wrote copious details (published in 1855) about hegumen Gerasim and hierodeacon Benedict. Parfeny twice records that Benedict was 106 years on his last appearance before his death,152 and thus Benedict was about 90 years the senior of Simonides. Simonides' Simonides' tale that Benedict was his mother's brother was thus patent nonsense,153 and the alleged family relationship was in any case contradicted by many witnesses. p. 64-65
In fact, it is recorded that both Benedict and Prokopios Dendrinos at the St Panteleimon monastery were trained at the Athoniada Academy on Mount Athos in the mid-1750s, which requires that Benedict was born no later than the 1730s, which is consistent with his being 106 in 1840. p. 65
And as for the hegumen Gerasim, it has never before crossed his mind, nor we trust, by the help of God, will he in future ever entertain the idea of making forged manuscripts. Benedict, who died in 1841, was neither Simonides' uncle, nor a relative, but only a compatriot.159
198 In 1843 Benedict had been dead only a very few years and the Greek readership around the Aegean
at that time would easily be able to establish that Benedict had never been hegumen of the Rossikon
monastery. He was known especially in the south Aegean as a teacher on Poros in the 1820s, and
originally from Syme. This proved far more difficult to ascertain from England in the 1860s. The lie
that Benedict was the hegumen of the Panteleimon monastery appears in a letter from Simonides to
The Athenaeum (issue December 21,1861, p.849): '[M]y late uncle...Benedict, the confidential adviser
and spiritual father of John Capo-dTstrias; and after his death, Superior of the Monastery St.
Panteleimon (Rosicon), in Mount Athos'. Kapodistrias died in 1831, and, as we have proved, Gerasim
was hegumen continuously from 1821 to 1875. The lie that Benedict was Simonides' uncle (mother's
brother) goes back at least to 1841, however, as Amphilocius attests. It was a 'plausible lie' since both
Benedict and Simonides' mother Maria hailed from Syme.
Last edited: