A thousand years ago, on March 12, 1022, a great monk, a teacher of theology and spirituality that the Christian East can boast: St. Symeon the New Theologian.
His biographer, Niceta Stethatos, who was also his fervent disciple, reports that George — this was his baptismal name — was born in 949 in Galatai, in Asia Minor, into a provincial noble family. He moved as a young man to Constantinople in the service of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, Byzantine emperor (905-959), but the civil…