The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal at Ave Maria University is pleased to announce Hieromonk Gregory Hrynkiw, ASTH, as the recipient of the 2014 St. Thomas Aquinas Dissertation Prize. The St. Thomas Aquinas Dissertation Prize honors the dissertation defended in any language during the past calendar year that best exemplifies the task of drawing upon the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas to engage constructively in contemporary theology, philosophy, and/or biblical studies.  

Hieromonk Gregory Hrynkiw, ASTH, has been a Byzantine-Catholic monk since 1989. While serving as Protohegumenos of the Basilian Order in Ukraine from February 2004 to July 2007, he fought on the front lines against systemic corruption. After suffering threats to his life, he was ordered to return to Rome, and in 2010 made his solemn profession of monastic vows into the Hermitage of the Three Holy Hierarchs. The Hermitage is a form of consecrated life, which follows the “middle path” of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, uniting both the contemplative (theoria) and active (praxis) aspects of monastic life.

In 2014, hieromonk Gregory completed his doctoral dissertation on Cajetan on Sacred Doctrine (In ST, I, q. 1): An Original Contribution towards a Theology of “Light from Light” by a Renaissance Cardinal and Theologian in via Thomae under the direction of Mons. Charles Morerod, O.P. at the Angelicum in Rome. At present, he is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, preaching and teaching. He is also the publisher of The Asketerion, which is the journal of the Hermitage of the Three Holy Hierarchs.