Maximus Crisoberga

MAXIMUS CRISOBERGA. - Greek, b. at Constantinople (14th century), man of letters, in the service of the emperor Manuel II, disciple of Demetrius Cydones, whose Greek translation of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas he read. He became a Catholic and a Dominican at Pera (1390-91?). He studied (and perhaps taught) philosophy at Venice (1393-94?), theology at Pavia (1396-97).

Boniface IX authorized him to celebrate Mass and the Divine Office in Greek, according to the rite of the Preachers (25 February 1938), and to found in Greek lands a new convent of his Order. He had the prayers of the Dominican Missal translated by his friend Manuel Chrysoloras, while Demetrius Cydones translated (if he had not done so earlier) the Ordinary of the Mass. M. C. then returned to the East (Crete and Chios) and died, probably at Mytilene, before 1429. He was a friend of Manuel Calecas. He had two brothers, Theodore and Andrew, converted and Dominicans like him. He is the author of a Discourse to the Cretans on the procession of the Holy Spirit, of various unpublished sermons, of theological letters to Joseph Bryennios and to Nilus Damilas, of which there is knowledge only in the replies of the latter.