Gregory Palamas: life of the saint, Palamas week and days of remembrance, philosophy and quotes, doctrine of the uncreated light, prayer, path and kontakion, icon, books

Saint Gregory Palamas, Thessaloniki State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin

The life of this remarkable ascetic, a refined Byzantine theologian and philosopher, became a reference point for the Christian world, an example of monastic and prayerful feats, and his divinely inspired teaching was the basis for the theological creativity of many generations of writers.

Life

We know about the exploits and trials that befell the saint from the “Eulogy of St. Gregory,” a kind of hagiography that was written by his contemporary, friend and closest disciple, St. Philotheus (Kokkin), Patriarch of Constantinople, author of many theological texts, prayers, lives, and polemical works. Perhaps he was also a co-author of the final form in the works of St. Gregory Palamas' teaching on hesychia.

Saint Gregory Palamas belongs to the galaxy of the highest minds of the thirteenth century. By birth, he was a Byzantine aristocrat - the first child in the family of Senator Constantine Palamas. Gregory's father was distinguished by his piety, practiced mental prayer, took monastic vows before his death, and shortly before that he prayerfully handed over the children to the Mother of God. After the death of his parent, Gregory’s upbringing was taken over by his highest patron and comrade, Emperor Andronikos II. Young Gregory began to live at the court of Constantinople.

Education

Thanks to his high position, he received an excellent education; at the university, one of his teachers was the famous Greek philosopher and theologian Theodore Metochites.

Useful materials

Gregory was considered the pearl of the imperial palace - he has a high intellect, loves science, and once gave such a brilliant lecture on Aristotle’s categories that he received the highest praise. At the same time, the religious young man, seeking the Lord, was burdened by the secular environment, striving for solitude and prayer. Perhaps, while still in Constantinople, he came into contact with Athonite monks who often visited the imperial chambers.

Gregory begins to practice abstinence, first of all, giving up the luxurious court life.

Departure for Athos

At the age of twenty (according to other sources, eighteen), despite some opposition from his guardian, Emperor Andronikos II, after much persuasion, he leaves the palace. St. Gregory decides to devote himself to God. His departure to Athos, together with his two younger brothers, Macarius and Theodosius, occurs in 1316. He managed to influence the remaining family members and some “smart slaves” who also decided to enter the monasteries of Constantinople. Gregory's mother, Kali (Kallonis), sisters Epicharis and Theodotia take monastic vows.

Upon arrival at the monastery, the young man falls under the command of the Monk Nicodemus, whose cell was located not far from the Vatopedi monastery, where the future saint lived for the next two years, learning to pray, and there he received and was tonsured by his teacher.

On Athos, Gregory indulged in that very ascetic monastic life that he dreamed of at court, he delved into asceticism, and also began to practice “hesychia” (from the Greek - silence, silence), a special kind of prayer and spiritual exercises necessary to achieve internal “silence”, calmness of consciousness from any worldly impressions, preservation of the strong-willed part of the soul from excuses sown by the devil.

Doing Smart

The center of the practice is prayerful “mental doing” (returning or immersing the mind in the heart), - repeated repetition of the prayer text, which may vary slightly, its basis is the “Jesus Prayer”, known to everyone - the invocation of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God .

The most common option: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The constant call, repetition of these words, combined with the practice of sobriety (constant awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings, their control), cleansing the soul and spiritual eyes from sinful thoughts common to fallen man, gradually leads him to the fulfillment of Adam’s destiny - becoming like the Lord, deification , and, ultimately, to the vision of the Uncreated Light of Tabor.

For Orthodox anthropology, mind and reason are completely different concepts. Reason or rationality is a quality that allows one to navigate in worldly existence, make decisions, learn, and experience the world. The mind (or spirit) is a special divine property of the human soul, an organ through which a person can communicate with God. Everyone must go through the path of an active spiritual life in order to purify themselves, especially the most important part of their psyche - the strong-willed and desirable (the one where aspirations, actions are born, where we say “I want, I wish”). The Lord teaches:

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21).

Almost two years St. Gregory managed to live away from the world, the contemplative life he desired, but the time was turbulent for Byzantium, and in 1325, fearing Turkish raids, the holy ascetic with a group of monks was forced to leave Athos.

Philotheus writes that he arrived in Thessalonica, whose patron was the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, whose miraculous appearance “kept them in the city.” Here St. Gregory takes the priesthood and gathers a community of hermit monks around the local Church. Around 1326, he made another attempt to retire and moved from the city to Mount Veria, where, according to legend, the Apostle Peter preached. The saint indulges in severe monastic asceticism and the practice of hesychia, going out to the monks only on Saturdays and Sundays to perform divine services.

Around 1330, Stefan Dušan, the Serbian kraal (king), conquered most of Byzantium, which was increasingly turning from an empire into a weak state subject to constant raids. The Serb even calls himself the title of Emperor Romei. Events known as the “Slavic invasion” force St. Gregory will again move to Athos, where he lives in the hermitage of St. Sava, nearby the holy mountain. This place has survived to this day. He is elected abbot of the Efsigmen monastery in the northern part of the Athos isthmus. But his privacy is violated again. The saint enters into perhaps the second most famous controversy in the history of theology.

Controversy with Varlaam

Around the same time, in Constantinople, at the imperial court, a new, very difficult personality appeared, a Greek of southern Italian origin, like Palamas, who had excellent command of the powerful apparatus of ancient philosophy. He belonged to the Order of Basil the Great, apparently was a Uniate, his name was Barlaam the Calabrian (came from the province of Calabria), thanks to his intelligence and erudition, he quickly found access to the domestic (viceroy) of Emperor Andronicus III, John Cantacuzene, mentored his children, and often visited palace

Interesting fact

Apparently, Varlaam hid his Uniate roots, he demonstratively entered into theological debates with representatives of Rome, even wrote several treatises refuting the Catholic teaching about the “filioque” (the hypostatic properties of the Trinity, the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from the Father, but also from the Son).

Saint Gregory, of course, read them; at the same time he created his “Propaedeutic Chapters” - also in refutation of the Latin dogma. A theological clash arises: Western rationalism, scholasticism, which, in general, had a good background - the defense of dogmas with the help of reason and logic. However, the Catholic enthusiasm for scholasticism made it the main principle of Western theology, while forgetting about the revealed nature of dogma. St. spoke out against this approach. Gregory Palamas.

In his work “Triads in Defense of the Sacredly Silent,” he postulates that dogma cannot be proven by the arguments of reason, “for it is the revelation of God.” He writes his creations in full accordance with the patristic tradition - the teachings of the Cappadocians.

At the same time, Varlaam becomes acquainted with monastic hesychast practices. Of course, as a scientist and rationalist, he subjects them to criticism and even ridicule.

Thus, the initial dispute arose due to the saint’s refutation of Barlaam’s ideas regarding issues of knowledge of God. The Italian philosopher professed a rather strict rational approach to knowledge; his theories were based more on the arguments of human logic than on experience. In particular, he believed that God is incomprehensible, judgments about Him are unprovable, therefore, it is impossible to know exactly what relationships occur between the Persons of the Holy Trinity. It was this peculiar agnosticism that St. analyzed. Grigory.

This was followed by an accusation of heresy, but this time from Varlaam, who, being familiar with the teaching of “mental prayer,” found it unorthodox. According to the Calabrian, the vision of the Light of Tabor, and the entire teaching about it, was the product of a state of delusion, self-delusion. He admitted the possibility that the Gospel story about the Light that transformed the Lord on Mount Tabor was in this part of a symbolic nature.

It must be said that hesychia is a fairly ancient, but spontaneous practice for monastics, and St. Gregory Palamas streamlined and substantiated it, giving it the appearance of a doctrine.

The Athonite hesychast (silent) monks, shocked by Varlaam’s attacks, turned for help to the saint, who practiced this type of prayer; he, of course, stood up for his brothers. He writes the essay “Triads in Defense of the Sacredly Silent” as a theological treatise, directed not only against the rationalistic scholasticism of Varlaam. Palamas creates the key doctrine for Christian soteriology - about human salvation. Its main, dogmatic part can be reduced to three points:

The non-participation of God in essence and the participation in energies. The Being of God is incomprehensible and invisible.
The light that the Lord’s chosen disciples saw on Mount Tabor was not symbolic, but real—uncreated and energetic. This is God Himself.
It is possible to comprehend and commune with the energies of God through transformed human feelings.

November

1359

After a long illness, Saint Gregory died at the age of 63 (or 61). His last words were: “To the heights!”

Saint Gregory Palamas: life, works, teachings

On the second Sunday of Great Lent, the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of St. Gregory Palamas. The portal Bogoslov.Ru publishes an article by the head of the Greco-Latin cabinet and teacher of the Moscow Theological Academy, Abbot Dionisy (Shlenov), dedicated to the saint.

Life[1]

The future saint was born in 1296 and received his education in Constantinople. After the early death of his father, Senator Constantine, in 1301, Gregory fell under the patronage of Emperor Andronicus II. Thus, the young man lived the first 20 years of his life at the royal court, and in the future he, who had various talents, was destined for a fast and successful career. He studied secular disciplines and philosophy with the best teacher of the era, Theodore Metochites, who was a philologist and theologian, rector of the university and at the same time, as this position is now called, prime minister. Gregory Palamas was the best of his students; He showed particular interest in the philosophy of Aristotle. At the age of 17, Gregory even gave a lecture in the palace on Aristotle's syllogistic method to the emperor and nobles. The lecture was so successful that at the end of it Metochites exclaimed: “And Aristotle himself, if he were here, would not fail to praise her.”

Despite all this, Gregory remained strikingly indifferent to politics and the world. Around 1316, at the age of 20, he left the palace and philosophical studies and retired to the Holy Mountain, where he devoted himself to an ascetic life and studies in occult theology. He began to get used to great feats while still in the palace. On Athos, Gregory labored in a cell near Vatopedi under the guidance of the Venerable Nicodemus, from whom he took monastic vows. After the death of his mentor (c. 1319), he moved to the Lavra of St. Athanasius, where he spent three years. Then, starting in 1323, he labored in the monastery of Glossia, where he spent all his time in vigils and prayers.

In 1325, due to Turkish attacks on the Holy Mountain, he, along with other monks, was forced to leave it. In Thessalonica, Gregory, at the request of his fellow monks, accepted the priesthood. From there he headed to the region of Berea, the city where the Apostle Paul once preached, where he continued his asceticism. Five days a week, shutting himself up in a cramped cell-cave located on the slope of a rock overgrown with dense thickets above a mountain stream, he indulged in mental prayer. On Saturday and Sunday he left his solitude to participate in the general divine service, which took place in the monastery catholicon.

However, the Slavic invasion, which also affected this area, prompted Gregory to return to the Holy Mountain in 1331, where he continued his hermit life in the desert of St. Sava on the Athos foothills above the Lavra. This desert has survived to this day. “Washed,” as in the time of St. Gregory, by the Athos winds, it amazes pilgrims with its absolute solitude and silence.

Then, for a short period, Gregory was elected abbot of the Esphigmen monastery. But, despite the care he had taken upon himself, he constantly strived to return to the silence of the desert. And he would have achieved this if a learned monk from Calabria (Southern Italy) named Varlaam (1290-1350) had not prompted him to enter the polemical path. The dispute with Varlaam lasted for 6 years from 1335 to 1341.

Varlaam came from an Orthodox Greek family and knew the Greek language well. He visited Byzantium and eventually ended up in Thessaloniki. In the mid-thirties of the XIV century. Theological discussions between the Greeks and Latins revived. In a number of his anti-Latin writings, directed, in particular, against the Latin teaching about the procession of the Holy Spirit and from the Son, Barlaam emphasized that God is incomprehensible and that judgments about God are not provable. Then Palamas wrote apodictic words against the Latin innovation, criticizing Barlaam's theological "agnosticism" and his excessive reliance on the authority of pagan philosophy.

This was the first theological clash between the two men. The second happened in 1337, when Varlaam was informed by some simple and illiterate monks about a certain technical method that the hesychasts used to create mental prayer. Having also studied some of the writings of the hesychast fathers on prayer, he furiously attacked the hesychasts, calling them messalians[2] and “umbilicals” (ὀμφαλόψυχοι). Then Palamas was entrusted with refuting Barlaam’s attacks. The personal meeting of both husbands did not at all lead to a positive result, but further aggravated the contradiction. At the Council of Constantinople in 1341 (meeting held on June 10), Varlaam, who accused the hesychasts of the wrong way of prayer and refuted the doctrine of the uncreated Light of Tabor, was condemned. Varlaam, although he asked for forgiveness, left for Italy in June of the same year, where he then converted to Roman Catholicism and became the Bishop of Ieracus.

After the council of 1341 and the removal of Varlaam, the first stage of the Palamite disputes ended.

At the second and third stages of the debate, Palamas’ opponents were Grigory Akindinus and Nicephorus Grigora, who, unlike Varlaam, did not criticize the psychosomatic method of prayer of the hesychasts. The dispute took on a theological character and concerned the issue of Divine energies, grace, and uncreated light.

The second stage of the dispute coincides with the civil war between John Cantacuzenus and John Palaiologos and took place between 1341 and 1347. On June 15, 1341, Emperor Andronikos III died. His successor John V Palaiologos was a minor, so the state experienced great upheaval as a result of a fierce power struggle between the great domesticist John Cantacuzenus and the great duca Alexios Apocaucus. Patriarch John Kaleka supported Apocaucus, while Palamas believed that the state could only be saved thanks to Cantacuzenus. Palamas' intervention in the political conflict, although he was not particularly politically inclined, led to the fact that he spent most of his later life in captivity and dungeons.

Meanwhile, in July 1341, another council was convened, at which Akindinus was condemned. At the end of 1341-1342, Palamas secluded himself first in the monastery of St. Michael of Sosthenia, and then (after May 12, 1342) in one of its deserts. In May-June 1342, two councils were held to condemn Palamas, which, however, did not produce any consequences. Gregory soon retired to Iraklia, from where, after 4 months, he was taken under escort to Constantinople, and taken into custody in a monastery there. After a two-month stay in the Church of Hagia Sophia, where Saint Gregory, together with his disciples, enjoyed immunity by right of asylum, he was imprisoned in the palace prison. In November 1344, at the Council of St. Gregory, Palamas was excommunicated from the Church, and Akindinus, his main opponent, was ordained deacon and priest at the end of the same year. However, due to changes in the political situation at the council on February 2, 1347, Gregory Palamas was acquitted, and his opponents were convicted.

After the victory of John Cantacuzenus and his proclamation as emperor, the patriarchal throne was occupied (May 17, 1347) by Isidore Vukhir, a friend of the hesychasts, and Gregory Palamas was soon elected Archbishop of Thessaloniki. Then the third stage of the Palamite disputes began. Palamas's main opponent was Nikephoros Gregoras. Political unrest in Thessalonica prevented Gregory from entering the city to perform his duties. The masters of the situation here turned out to be the Zealots, friends of the Palaiologos and opponents of Cantacuzenus. They prevented the arrival of Palamas until the capture of Thessalonica by Cantacuzene in 1350. Before this time, Palamas visited Athos and Lemnos. Once in Thessalonica, he was able to pacify the city. However, his opponents did not stop vehemently polemicizing. Because of this, two councils were convened in May-June and July 1351, which condemned his opponent Nicephorus Gregoras and proclaimed Palamas the “defender of piety.” At the first of these councils, the doctrine of the unity of the Divine and the difference between the essence and uncreated energies was established. At the second council, six dogmatic definitions were adopted with the corresponding six anathemas, which immediately after the council were included in the Synodic of Orthodoxy. In addition to affirming the above distinction between essence and energy, the non-participation of the Divine essence and the possibility of communion with Divine energies that are uncreated were proclaimed here.

Having gone to Constantinople in 1354 in order to act as a mediator between Cantacuzene and John Palaiologos, Palamas was captured by the Turks, who held him captive for about a year until they received the required ransom from the Serbs for his release. He considered his captivity an appropriate opportunity to preach the truth to the Turks, which is what he tried to do, as can be seen from the Epistle to the Thessalonian Church, as well as from two texts of Interviews with representatives from among the Turks. Seeing that the destruction of the empire by the Turks was almost inevitable, he believed that the Greeks should immediately begin converting the Turks to Christianity.

After liberation from the Turks and return to Thessalonica, St. Gregory continued his pastoral work in his diocese until 1359 or, according to the new dating, until 1357. Smitten by one of his long-standing illnesses, which bothered him from time to time, Saint Gregory died on November 14 at the age of 63 years (or 61 years). At first he was glorified as a locally revered saint in Thessaloniki, but soon in 1368, by a council decision, he was officially inscribed in the calendar of Hagia Sophia by Patriarch Philotheus Kokkin, who compiled his commendable life and service. At first, the relics of St. Gregory were placed in the cathedral church of Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki; now a particle of his relics is kept in the Metropolitan Cathedral in honor of Gregory Palamas near the city embankment.

Essays

Gregory Palamas composed numerous works of theological, polemical, ascetic and moral content, as well as numerous homilies and epistles.

“The Life of Peter of Athos” is the very first work of St. Gregory Palamas, written c. 1334

In the "new inscriptions" against the inscriptions of John Beccus and in the two apodictic words "Against the Latins" (written in 1334-1335 or according to the latest dates in 1355) the question of the procession of the Holy Spirit is considered. The Holy Spirit as a hypostasis comes “only from the Father.” “The hypostasis of the Most Holy Spirit is not from the Son; It is not given or accepted by anyone, but Divine grace and energy”[3]. Similar to the teaching of Nicholas of Metho, procession is a hypostatic property, while grace, which is energy, is common to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Only taking into account this commonality can we say that the Holy Spirit emanates from the Father, and from the Son, and from Himself. This view of the procession is in common with the teachings of Nikephoros Blemmides and Gregory of Cyprus, who, faithful to the patristic tradition, pinned their hopes on a theological dialogue between East and West.

The work “Triads in Defense of the Sacredly Silent” was written in order to repel Barlaam’s attacks on the hesychasts; it also resolves all the theological issues that became the subject of dispute. The work is divided into three triads, each of them subdivided into three treatises. The first triad, written in the spring of 1338 in Thessalonica, is devoted to the question of knowing God. Opposing Barlaam's newly formulated position, Palamas insists that the path to knowing God is not an external philosophy, but a revelation in Christ. Christ renewed the whole man, therefore the whole man, soul and body, can and should participate in prayer. Man, starting from his present life, partakes of the grace of God and tastes as a guarantee the gift of deification, which he will taste in full in the next century.

In the second triad (compiled in the spring-summer of 1339), he sharply criticizes Varlaam’s assertion that knowledge of philosophy can bring salvation to a person. Man does not enter into communication with God through created means, but only through Divine grace and through participation in the life of Christ.

In the third triad (written in the spring-summer of 1340), he deals with the issue of deification and the Tabor light as uncreated Divine energy. Man does not partake of the essence of God, otherwise we would come to pantheism, but he partakes of the natural energy and grace of God. Here St. Gregory systematically explores the fundamental difference in his teaching between essence and energy. The same issues are addressed in the five epistles of the Epistles: three to Akindinus and two to Barlaam, written at the beginning of the dispute.

In doctrinal works (“Svyatogorsk Tomos”, spring-summer 1340; “Confession of Faith”, etc.), and in works directly related to the dispute (“On divine unity and distinction”, summer 1341; “On the divine and deifying participation", winter 1341-1342; "Dialogue of Orthodox Theophan with Theotim", autumn 1342, etc.) - as well as in 14 messages addressed to monastics, persons in the priesthood and laity (the last letter was sent to Empress Anna Paleologine) continue to discuss controversial issues between Palamas, on the one hand, and Varlaam and Akindinus, on the other.

The seven "Antirrhitics against Akindinus" (1342-not earlier than the spring of 1345) were written in order to refute the corresponding antirritiki against Palamas compiled by Gregory Akindinus. They speak of the consequences of not distinguishing between essence and energy in God. Akindinus, not accepting that grace is the natural energy of the essence of God, but a creature, as a result falls into a heresy greater than that of Arius. The grace of God, says Palamas, appears holy as uncreated light, similar to that which the apostles saw during the Transfiguration of Christ. This uncreated light and, in general, all the energies of God are a common expression of the one essence of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

“Against Gregoras” Palama wrote 4 refuting words (1 and 2 - in 1355, 1356; 3 and 4 - in 1356-1357). Grigora accepted Varlaam's theological theses, arguing that the grace of God and especially the light of the Transfiguration was created. Palamas refutes Gregoras arguments and argues that the light of the Transfiguration was neither a creature nor a symbol, but a reflection of the divine essence and confirmation of real communication between God and man.

All of the above works by Palamas are distinguished by a distinct polemical character and are aimed at refuting the views of opponents. Palamas expresses his theological statements with complete clarity in his less polemical theological and ascetic writings. In “150 Theological, Moral and Practical Chapters” (1349/1350), he sets out, using the method usual for all ascetic writers of the East, the main themes of his teaching in short chapters. In some cases he cites entire passages from his previous writings. Having systematized his theological teaching, he presents it with clarity and completeness, along with his philosophical views.

The essay “To Xenia on the Passions and Virtues” (1345-1346) is addressed to a nun who was involved in raising the daughters of Emperor Andronikos III. This is an extensive ascetic treatise dedicated to the fight against passions and the acquisition of Christian virtues.

During his archpastorship in Thessaloniki, from the pulpit of the Cathedral Church of St. Gregory Palamas spoke most of his 63 homilies, confirming his deep spirituality, theological gifts and devotion to the Church. Although the homilies are devoted primarily to ascetic-moral and social-patriotic themes, they also contain room for speculation about the uncreated Tabor light (in homilies 34, 35 “On the Transfiguration of the Lord”). Some of the listeners could not follow the thoughts of St. Gregory's homilies due to lack of education. However, he prefers to speak in a high style so that “it is better to raise up those who are prostrate on the earth, rather than bring down those who are on high because of them.” However, any attentive listener can clearly understand what was said.

Of the texts dating back to the time of his captivity from the Turks, the most valuable is the “Letter to his [Thessalonian] Church,” which, in addition to various historical information, describes some of his interviews and describes a number of episodes in which the Turks appear.

In addition to the above, many smaller works of refutation, polemical, ascetic and theological content and four prayers have been preserved.

Teaching

Saint Gregory Palamas, using creatively revised theological terminology, communicated new directions in theological thought. His teaching was not determined only by philosophical concepts, but was formed on completely different principles. He theologizes on the basis of personal spiritual experience, which he experienced while laboring as a monk and fighting as a skilled warrior against those who distorted the faith, and which he justified from the theological side. That is why he began to write his essays at a fairly mature age, and not in his youth.

1. Philosophy and theology

Varlaam likens knowledge to health, which is indivisible into health given by God and health acquired through a doctor. Also, knowledge, divine and human, theology and philosophy, according to the Calabrian thinker, are one [4]: “philosophy and theology, as gifts of God, are equal in value before God.” Responding to the first comparison of St. Gregory wrote that doctors cannot heal incurable diseases, they cannot resurrect the dead[5].

Palamas goes on to make a very clear distinction between theology and philosophy, drawing firmly on the previous patristic tradition. External knowledge is completely different from true and spiritual knowledge; it is impossible “to learn anything true about God from [external knowledge].”[6] Moreover, between external and spiritual knowledge there is not only a difference, but also a contradiction: “it is hostile towards true and spiritual knowledge”[7].

According to Palamas, there are two wisdoms: worldly wisdom and Divine wisdom. When the wisdom of the world serves Divine wisdom[8], they form a single tree, the first wisdom bears leaves, the second fruits[9]. Also, “the type of truth is twofold”[10]: one truth refers to inspired scripture, the other to external education or philosophy. These truths not only have different purposes, but also different initial principles. Philosophy, starting with sensory perception, ends with knowledge. The wisdom of God begins with goodness through purity of life, as well as with true knowledge of things, which does not come from learning, but from purity[11]. “If you are without purity, even if you have studied all natural philosophy from Adam to the end of the world, you will be a fool, or even worse, and not a wise man.”[12] The end of wisdom is “the pledge of the future age, ignorance exceeding knowledge, secret communion and inexpressible vision, mysterious and ineffable contemplation and knowledge of eternal light”[13].

Representatives of external wisdom underestimate the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is, they fight against the mysterious energies of the Spirit[14]. The wisdom of the prophets and apostles is not acquired by teaching, but is taught by the Holy Spirit[15]. The Apostle Paul, caught up to the third heaven, was enlightened not by his thoughts and mind, but received the illumination of “the power of the good Spirit according to the hypostasis in the soul”[16]. The illumination that occurs in a pure soul is not knowledge, since it exceeds meaning and knowledge[17]. “The main good” is sent from above, is a gift of grace, and not a natural gift[18].

2. Knowledge of God and vision of God

Barlaam excluded any possibility of knowing God and presenting apodictic syllogisms about the Divine, because he considered God incomprehensible. He allowed only symbolic knowledge of God, and then not in earthly life, but only after the separation of body and soul.

Palamas agrees that God is incomprehensible, but he attributes this incomprehensibility to the basic property of the Divine essence. In turn, he considers some knowledge possible when a person has certain prerequisites for knowing God, Who becomes accessible through His energies. God is simultaneously comprehensible and incomprehensible, known and unknown, spoken and ineffable. The knowledge of God is acquired by “theology,” which is twofold: cataphatic and apophatic. Cataphatic theology, in turn, has two means: reason, which through the contemplation of beings comes to a certain knowledge[19], and Scripture with the Fathers.

In the Areopagite Corpus, preference is given to apophatic theology, when the ascetic, having gone beyond everything sensual, plunges into the depths of Divine darkness[20]. According to Saint Gregory Palamas, what takes a person beyond cataphatics is faith, which constitutes proof or super-proof of the Divine: “the best of all proofs and as if some kind of principle of sacred proof that does not require proof is faith”[21]. P. Christou wrote that according to Palamas, “apophatic theology is the supernatural actions of faith”[22].

Contemplation, which crowns theology, is the spiritually experiential confirmation of faith. Unlike Varlaam for St. Gregory's contemplation is above everything, including apophatic theology. It is one thing to speak or remain silent about God, it is another to live, see and possess God. Apophatic theology does not cease to be “logos”, but “contemplation is higher than logos”[23]. Barlaam spoke about cataphatic and apophatic vision, and Palamas spoke about vision above vision[24], associated with the supernatural, with the power of the mind as the action of the Holy Spirit.

In the vision above vision, the intelligent eyes participate, and not the thought, between which there is an insurmountable gap. Palamas compares the possession of genuine contemplation to the possession of gold; it is one thing to think about it, another to have it in your hands. “Theology is as inferior to this vision of God in light and as far from communication with God as knowledge is from possession. Talking about God and meeting God are not the same thing.”[25] He emphasizes the special significance of “enduring” the Divine in comparison with “theology” cataphatic or apophatic[26]. Those who are rewarded with ineffable vision come to know that which is above sight, not apophatically, “but from seeing in the Spirit this idolizing energy”[27]. “Unity and seeing in darkness” is superior to “such theology”[28].

In general, we can say that Palamas defends Orthodox theology from the “agnosticism” that Barlaam tried to impose. Christian theology, based on the unity and difference of the Divine essence and energies, can also present apodictic syllogisms about God.

3. Essence and energies in God

God is incomprehensible in essence, but the objective value of God's revelation in human history is known by His energies. The existence of God consists of His “self-existent” essence[29], which remains incomprehensible, and His actions or energies, uncreated and eternal. Through the difference between essence and energies, it became possible to achieve knowledge of God, unknowable by essence, but cognizable by energies by those who have achieved a certain degree of spiritual perfection. The incomprehensibility and incomprehensibility of the divine essence excludes for man any direct participation in it.

The doctrine of the difference between essence and energies is most clearly presented in the works of the Cappadocian fathers (IV century), in St. John Chrysostom (end of the 4th century - beginning of the 5th century), in the Areopagite corpus (beginning of the 6th century) and in St. Maximus the Confessor ( VII century). For the Cappadocian fathers, the doctrine of the comprehensibility of the Divine essence was unacceptable as one of the theses of Eunomius, who, by asserting equal opportunities for knowledge of God for people and our Lord Jesus Christ, thereby tried to belittle the Son of God. For the author of the Areopagitica, this teaching was an organic consequence of the apophatic theology developing in the corps. The Monk Maximus the Confessor, with his sublime teaching about the logoi, refuting from within the unresolved remnants of Origenism, also in many ways anticipated the teaching of the Thessalonian saint.

During the early Middle Ages, there was a debate between nominalists and realists about the existence of ideas, and therefore about the properties of God. Echoes of this dispute can also be seen in the Palamite dispute: the anti-Palamites denied the actual existence of properties, and Palamas, during the early period of the controversy, emphasized their existence even excessively, saying that one is the Divine, and the other is the kingdom, holiness, etc.[30] They are essential in God, as they say in the saddle used by Palamas at the Transfiguration:

"The hidden shine under the flesh

Thy essential, O Christ, and divine splendor

you showed on the Holy Mountain,

and in his own triads, where he spoke of “the light of divine and essential beauty”[31].

Gregory Palamas himself repeatedly emphasized the unity of essence and energies. “Although divine energy differs from the divine essence, in essence and energy there is one Divinity of God”[32]. A modern Greek specialist in church history and law, Blasius Fidas, formulated the teaching of St. Gregory as follows: “[the difference] between the unparticipated divine essence and the participating energies does not separate the uncreated energies from the divine essence, since in each energy the whole of God appears, due to the indivisibility of the divine essence”[33 ].

4. Deification and salvation

The distinction between essence and energy in God gave Palamas the basis for a correct description of the renewal of man that took place in Christ. While God remains essentially unapproachable, He gives man the opportunity to enter into actual communication with Him through His energies. A person, communing with divine energies or divine grace, receives by grace what God has in essence. By grace and through communication with God, a person becomes immortal, uncreated, eternal, infinite, in a word, becomes God. “We become completely gods without identity in essence”[34]. Man receives all this from God as a gift of communication with Him, as grace emanating from the very essence of God, which always remains unrelated to man. “The deification of deified angels and people is not the super-essential essence of God, but the energy of the super-essential essence of God that coexists in the deified”[35].

If a person does not actively participate in uncreated, idolizing grace, he remains a created result of the creative energy of God, and the only connection connecting him with God remains the connection of creation with its Creator. While the natural life of man is the result of Divine energy, life in God is the participation of Divine energy, which leads to deification. The achievement of this deification is determined by two most important factors - concentration and turning the mind to the inner man and unceasing prayer in a kind of spiritual wakefulness, the crown of which is communication with God. In this state, human forces retain their energy, despite the fact that they are above their usual standards. Just as God condescends to man, so man begins to ascend to God, so that this meeting of theirs can truly be realized. In it, the whole person is enveloped in the uncreated light of Divine glory, which is eternally sent from the Trinity, and the mind admires the Divine light and itself becomes light. And then in this way the mind, like light, sees light. “The deifying gift of the Spirit is an ineffable light, and it creates with divine light those who are enriched by it”[36].

At this moment we come into contact with one of the most important elements of Palamas' teaching. The experience of deification and the salvation of man is a possible reality, beginning in present life, with a glorious union of the historical with the supra-historical. The human soul, through the acquisition again of the Divine spirit, now looks forward to the experience of Divine light and Divine glory. The light that the disciples saw on Tabor, the light that the pure hesychasts see now, and the existence of the blessings of the future century constitute three stages of one and the same event, adding up to a single supra-temporal reality[37]. However, for the future reality, when death will be abolished, the present reality is a simple guarantee[38].

The identification of essence and energy in God, which Palamas' opponents taught, destroys the very possibility of achieving salvation. If the uncreated grace and energy of God does not exist, then a person either partakes of the Divine essence, or cannot have any communication with God. In the first case, we come to pantheism; in the second, the very foundations of the Christian faith are destroyed, according to which man is offered the possibility of real communication with God, which was realized in the divine-human person of Jesus Christ. The uncreated grace of God does not free the human soul from the shackles of the body, but renews the whole person and transfers him to where Christ elevated human nature during His Ascension.

5. The doctrine of the uncreated light

Palamas's teaching about the uncreated light of the divine Transfiguration is one of the most fundamental, dominant trends in his writings. He speaks from his own experience, which was the starting point for his theology. The light that shone upon Christ during the Transfiguration was not a creature, but an expression of Divine greatness, the vision of which the disciples were awarded, having received the opportunity to see after appropriate preparation by Divine grace. This light was not a created “symbol of the Divine,” as Varlaam believed,[39] but divine and uncreated. Saint Gregory wrote in response to Barlaam: “The entire face of divine theologians was afraid to call the grace of this light a symbol, ... so that no one would consider this most divine light to be created and alien to the Divine...”[40].

St. Maximus the Confessor actually calls this light a symbol, but not in the sense of a sensual symbol symbolizing something higher and spiritual, but in the sense of something higher “analogically and anagogically,” which remains completely incomprehensible to the human mind, but contains the knowledge of theology and teaches it capable of seeing and perceiving[41]. The Monk Maxim also writes about the light of Tabor as a “natural symbol of the Divinity” of Christ[42]. Interpreting the thought of St. Maximus, Saint Gregory Palamas contrasts the unnatural symbol with the natural[43], the sensual - with a feeling above the senses, when “the eye does not see God with the help of an alien symbol, but sees God as a symbol”[44]. “The Son, born from the Father without beginning, possesses without beginning the natural ray of the Divine; the glory of the Godhead becomes the glory of the body..."[45].

So, the Tabor light is the uncreated energy of God[46], which is contemplated by the intelligent eyes of a “purified and blessed” heart[47]. God “is seen as light and by light creates the pure in heart, which is why he is called light”[48]. The Light of Tabor is superior not only to external knowledge, but also to knowledge from the Scriptures. Knowledge from the Scriptures is like a lamp that can fall into a dark place, and the light of mysterious contemplation is like a bright star, “like the sun.”[49] If Tabor light is compared to the sun, it is only a comparison. The character of Favorian light is higher than feelings. The Tabor light was neither intelligible nor sensual, but above feeling and understanding. That’s why he shone “not like the sun... but above the sun. Although he is spoken of in likeness, there is no equality between them...”[50].

This vision of light is authentic, real and perfect; the soul takes part in it, involving the entire mental and physical composition of a person in the process of vision. The vision of light leads to unity with God and is a sign of this unity: “He who has that light inexpressibly and sees no longer by idea, but by a true vision and above all creatures, knows and has God within himself, for he is never separated from the eternal glory.”[ 51]. The vision of the uncreated light in earthly life is a precious gift, the threshold of eternity: “... the uncreated light is now given to the worthy as a pledge, and in the endless century it will overshadow them endlessly”[52]. This is the same light that true hesychasts see, to which Palamas himself partook. This is why Saint Gregory Palamas himself became a great messenger of grace and light.

Doctrine of the Uncreated Light

The expanded teaching of Palamas about the Uncreated Light is considered the consistent completion of the apophatic theological tradition. Ideas about some mysterious mystical reality, the apologist of which is St. Gregory Palamas, were attested more than once in the books of both the Old and New Testaments.

Transfiguration of the Lord Pskov School Wood, gesso, tempera; height 92 cm, width 71 cm Pskov State United Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve

This is the Glory of Christ, which gracefully shone forth to His disciples on Mount Tabor, the power that converted Saul on the way to Damascus, which was revealed to the holy protomartyr Stephen and to the multitude of people to whom the Lord revealed Himself.

In response to the attacks of Varlaam and his disciples, who considered the Tabor Light of Transfiguration to be an unknown physical manifestation or even a symbol, St. Gregory very clearly, clearly and logically formulates the dogma about divine energies, according to which, unapproachable in His essence, God, who dwells in incomprehensible darkness, reveals Himself to man, but energetically, that is, in inseparable and, without a doubt, uncreated actions or grace.

Apologetics of St. Gregory, in a good sense, cannot be called completely independent, her background goes back to the patristic tradition of apophatic theology (negative or negative theology, a method the essence of which is an attempt to express in words the essence of the divine, by denying all its possible definitions as inappropriate to it).

Saints Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, great teachers of the Church, are in many ways the predecessors of St. Gregory Palamas, in their works one can clearly see how the essence of God, which they often call incomprehensible, unnameable or unapproachable, differs from the grace-filled energies of the Lord descending to man.

Thus, the author of the Areopagitik writes about the “super-essence” of God, transcendent to any knowledge, which he calls “unities”, and about the “distinctions” in which the Lord shows himself to us from His inaccessibility. Palamas's famous treatise, entitled “On Divine Unity and Distinction,” partly repeats and interprets these lofty meanings. Thus, in his works, the saint experimentally developed and rethought the revealed knowledge of God, which already existed earlier, but at the level of intuition of the Holy Church.

Life of St. Gregory Palamas is consonant with the Parable of the Lighted Candle

— The biography of the saint is quite remarkable.

— His life is consonant with the Parable of the Lighted Candle (Matthew 5:15-16; Mark 4:21-25; Luke 11:33). Saint Gregory Palamas abandoned his secular career for the sake of monasticism. But he had no intention of pursuing a church career either. He retired to a quiet place on Mount Athos, where he intended to live the rest of his life in labor and communion with God. He entered monasticism, not at all expecting or wanting any high positions - he ended his life’s journey in the rank of Archbishop of Thessaloniki (Thessalonica).

Thessalonica at that time was the second most important city in the empire; it was a large, very prestigious, in modern terms, department.

Saint Gregory entered monasticism, not wanting fame, but just as a lit candle cannot burn under cover, so he could not remain in obscurity for long. And it was precisely the numerous theological discussions of that period that became the reason that he was forced, at the request of other monks, to return to the world to defend the Orthodox faith.

Thus, the saint not only left the world for the sake of the Orthodox faith, but also returned to the world for the sake of the Orthodox faith, for the sake of its defense. He was driven by a fiery desire to be Orthodox and to defend his faith by all means.

The life of the saint was full of trials. The Orthodox fact is little known to a wide circle that, already in high rank, the saint was kidnapped by Turkish sailors. He spent more than a year in captivity and was ransomed as an ordinary prisoner. In his life the saint had to experience persecution, insults, and even numerous accusations of apostasy from the Orthodox faith.

The Doctrine of Divine Energies

St. Gregory Palamas just says that it is possible for us to know the Lord, but in His energies or actions or grace. When we come across the names of God: Creator, All-Good, Almighty, we know that they indicate the energetic manifestations of God to his creation.

While Varlaam proves that the only possible way of knowing God is the human mind: by acquiring more and more knowledge we are getting closer and closer to God the Creator, Palamas teaches that knowledge of the created world does not bring us any closer to “the uninvolved creature and the created world “, external wisdom and learning are good, but one must seek the highest “philosophy”, which appears from the ascent of the soul to God through prayer and purity of heart.

Theology is not a school of logical calculations about the Lord, who is incomprehensible to reason, but a special gift of the revelation of God, when the sense of divine truth is achieved by the purity of the soul.

The First Triad of his most important work, St. Gregory devoted himself to issues of knowledge of God. He postulates: if the Son of God, having come into this world, saved and renewed the whole person completely, then he, both soul and body, through prayer, receives the opportunity to communicate with Him and is enlightened by divine grace.

In the Second Triad, Varlaam’s ideas that philosophy (or external wisdom) can save a person are convincingly refuted. No one can save himself, without God. This is a gift that God gives to man; one can partake of it only by living in Christ.

The third Triad, the final one, contains St. Gregory Palamas examines in detail the issue of the Uncreated Light of Tabor, and its contemplation through the practice of “smart doing.” The incomprehensibility of God in His essence does not mean that He is inaccessible to man; His true knowledge occurs through the communion with His Divine Uncreated energies, grace, the manifestations of which are known to us from the Holy Scriptures. This is not only the Tabor light of the Transfiguration, but also the light of the Holy Resurrection of Christ (remember the photographic print on the Shroud of Turin). It is these blessed energies that a person can join and become enlightened by the will of God.

Interesting fact

In 1347, the angry Varlaam initiated a council, at which he acted as Gregory's accuser. This was followed by several more councils, one of the results of which was the crystallization of the doctrine of the Uncreated Light, the complete justification of hesychasm, and the Barlaamites were anathematized.

St. Gregory and his teaching found a response in the hearts of the Patriarch (Philotheus) and members of the imperial family of Palelogues. Later, the Ecumenical Patriarch and friend of the saint will put an end to the issue of canonization of St. Gregory.

Already in our time, in 2009, the Greek Orthodox Church glorified as saints members of the saint’s family: father Constantius and mother Kallonis, sisters Epicharis and Theodota, brothers Theodosius and Macarius.

Angelic image

According to various estimates, by the age of 18–20, Gregory, having decided to abandon secular temptations and connect his life with ascetic deeds, went to Athos.

At the same time, he renounced the property inherited from his father and convinced his mother and other family members, as well as some servants, to leave meaningless vanity, renounce the blessings of this world and enter the monasteries of Constantinople.

The emperor looked at Gregory's plan without much joy or sympathy. Either not fully realizing the seriousness of his intentions, or not wanting to lose a loyal and promising subject, he did not want to let Gregory go. But he was persistent and eventually achieved his goal.

On the way to Athos, where Gregory went with two brothers, Theodosius and Macarius, all three stopped on Mount Papikon. By God's providence they spent several months in those places. There is a legend that when Gregory entered into a controversy with the local Bogomils (about prayer), he was almost poisoned.

Having finally reached Athos, Gregory stood under the spiritual guidance of the wise and experienced ascetic, the Monk Nicodemus of Vatopedi. After a two-year test of obedience, monastic difficulties, and temptations, he took monastic vows.

After the blessed death of his mentor, St. Nicodemus, Gregory, with the blessing of his superiors, entered the Lavra of St. Athanasius. The abbot of the monastery assigned him to the singers. In this Lavra, in fasting, obedience and prayer, he labored for three years, and then, guided by the best considerations, retired to the Glossia desert for his labors. Here his spiritual mentor was the famous saint of God, Gregory Drimis.

A couple of years later (around 1325), in order to avoid the consequences of Turkish robbery, Gregory, along with eleven other monks, moved to Thessalonica. From there the brethren planned to move to Jerusalem. But the Lord intervened: the friends were kept in place by the appearance of the patron saint of Thessalonica, the Great Martyr Demetrius.

Heritage

Saint Gregory left us a whole corpus of theological works, which can be divided into moral-ascetic, dogmatic and letters. Main dogmatic and polemical works:

"Antirrhetics against Akindina";
“Letter to Akindinus, sent from Thessalonica before the conciliar condemnation of Varlaam and Akindinus”;
“Interview of an Orthodox Christian with a Barlaamite”;
"Ten Conversations";
"Dispute with the Chions";
"Confession of the Orthodox Faith";
“On the Divine and deifying Communion, or on the Divine and supernatural simplicity”;
“On Divine Union and Separation”;
“About Divine energies and their communion”;
“On the procession of the Holy Spirit”;
“About the Sacred-Silent”;
"Against John Veccus";
“Svyatogorsk Tomos in defense of the sacredly silent”;
“One hundred and fifty chapters devoted to natural scientific, theological and moral issues”;
“Treatise [On] the fact that Varlaam and Akindinus truly impiously and godlessly divide the one Deity into two unequal deities”;
“Interview of Orthodox Theophan with Theotimos, who returned from the Barlaamites”;
"Triads in Defense of the Sacred and Silent."

Iconography

Icons of the saint appeared in the Byzantine Empire immediately after his glorification in 1368. St. Gregory is depicted on them as a mature husband, with short-cropped, dark hair (sometimes with a comb), and a thick dark beard. His vestments represent the traditional episcopal robes of that time: a patterned or cross-shaped phelonion and an omophorion. In the saint's left hand, the Holy Scripture (the Gospel, sometimes with a scroll), with his right hand he makes a blessing gesture.

Saint Gregory Palamas

There are later images, dating back to the time after the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, in which the saint appears in the eppanokallimahon - a special headdress for saints in monastic rank. The emphasis is placed on his ascetic feat.

The earliest known images of Saint Gregory Palamas are in Thessalonica. In the main cathedral church of the Vlatodon monastery, fresco painting is presented: a half-figure of the saint in a three-quarter spread, with a halo, in his hands he holds an open Gospel, a later painting of the temple is located in its southern aisle, instead of the traditional for this part of the premises, the figures of the four Evangelists, the icon painter placed they contain an image of the saint, together with the great theologians and Teachers of the Church - the Apostle John the Theologian, St. Gregory the Theologian, and possibly St. Simeon the New Theologian. This kind of fresco icon of the saint is well known in Greek monasteries.

Saint Gregory Palamas 1371 Vatopedi Monastery, Athos Fresco in the paraklisis of St. Unmercenaries

One of the very first icons was painted in Byzantium, dating back to the end of the fourteenth century; interestingly, it is now in Russia, in the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin. It is a half-length image in which the saint is depicted in traditional episcopal vestments. The icon became the ancestor for the traditional Russian iconography of St. Gregory Palamas.

Images of the saint are sometimes found in the menaion or hagiographic icon.

The icon, as a living contemplation of the Image of God, is traditionally one of the symbols of hesychasm. St. Gregory writes:

“This, for our sake, who became man, create an icon out of love for Him and through it remember Him, through it worship Him, through it raise your mind to the worshiped body of the Savior, sitting in glory at the right hand of the Father in heaven. In the same way, create icons of saints […] and worship them, not as gods, which is forbidden, but as evidence of your communication with them in love for them and honoring them, raising your mind to them through their icons.”

After the death of the saint, his miraculous relics were solemnly placed in the large cathedral church of Hagia Sophia in his native Thessalonica. When the city was captured by the Turks, and the Orthodox church was turned into a mosque, the relics of St. Gregory Palamas, Bishop of Thessalonica, were transferred to the monastery of Vlatadon, and then to the main metropolitan cathedral of the city of Thessalonica. They are kept in the cathedral, specially built and consecrated in 1914, in the name of the great saint. You can venerate them when the temple is open; a silver shrine with relics is located to the right of the entrance.

Cathedral address: Αγ. Σοφίας 6, Θεσσαλονίκη. Greece , Thessaloniki, corner of St. Sophia and Metropolikos streets).

Prayers and troparia to the saint

First prayer

O truly blessed and honorable and most beloved head, the power of silence, the glory of monastics, the common adornment of theologians and fathers and teachers, the apostles' companions, confessors and martyrs, the bloodless zealot and crowner of words and deeds and piety, the champion and chosen commander of divine dogmas, the high expounder and teacher, the delights of various heresies to the consumer, the representative, guardian, and deliverer of the whole Church of Christ! You have reposed in Christ, and now you watch over your flock and the whole Church from above, healing various diseases and governing all your words, and driving out heresies, and delivering manifold passions. Accept our this prayer and deliver us from passions and temptations, and worries, and troubles, and grant us weakness and peace and prosperity, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Him be glory and power, together with His beginningless Father and the Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and ever. Amen.

Second prayer

Oh, all-praiseworthy saint of Christ and wonderworker Gregory! Accept this small prayer from us sinners who have come running to you and through your warm intercession beseech the Lord our God Jesus Christ, for, having looked upon us mercifully, He will grant us sins. forgiveness of both free and involuntary, and in His great mercy He will deliver us from troubles, sorrows, sorrows and illnesses, mental and physical, that beset us; May he give the land fruitfulness and everything that is needed for the benefit of our present life; may He grant us to end this life in time in repentance, and may He grant us, sinners and unworthy of His Heavenly Kingdom, to glorify His endless mercy with all the saints, from the beginning His Father and His Holy and Life-Giving Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Prayer three

All Orthodox mentors and the radiance of the Church, Father Gregory, deliver us from every situation, falling to your divine icon by faith, freeing us from the invasion of the enemy upon us, you will help Our friend appears and fulfills and always fulfills the requests of those who lightly please you, praying to the Trisiac Trinity at all times, To her is due great glory, honor and worship to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Palamas Week and Saint's Memorial Days

The memory of St. Gregory Palamas, the greatest theologian and ascetic, a talented preacher, is venerated by the Church twice a year. The first day of remembrance is November 14 (27). And the second, tied to the moving circle of worship - on the second Sunday of Lent. The Orthodox Church devotes the entire second week of Lent to its intelligent defender and good saint Gregory Palamas, his dogmatic, divinely revealed creativity is remembered and glorified.

St. Gregory not only created and substantiated a detailed concept of mystical experience for Orthodox monasticism, but was also able to pass on his experience of communion with God to subsequent generations of believers. He showed the whole world how the path of repentance, prayer and fasting gives a person the opportunity to have a real meeting with the Lord.

What is important here is the moment of coordinating the human will with the will of God. Desires often come from the fallen part of the human soul. Thus, hesychia or silence - in unceasing prayer, in a constant volitional effort of turning thoughts and the will to contemplate God, the Son of God revealed to us, is a necessary purifying practice for communion with God and knowledge of God. Creations of St. Gregory Palamas is a special kind of experienced theology, confirmed by personal experience.

Author: Ksenia Filina

The path to monasticism

Saint Gregory Palamas came from a famous aristocratic family (at the end of the 12th century the saint's ancestors moved to Constantinople from the territory of Asia Minor). The approximate date of his birth is considered to be 1296.

Gregory's father, Constantine Palamas, an influential senator, was one of the nobility close to the imperial court. On his deathbed, having repented of his sins, he took monastic vows. After his death in 1301, the reigning emperor, Andronikos II, took his son, Gregory Palamas, under his personal guardianship and protection.

During that period of time, friendly relations began between the orphaned Gregory and Andronikos III, the future emperor, as close as the rules of subordination allowed. Subsequently, Andronik repeatedly provided him with help and assistance.

According to his social status, Gregory received an excellent education. Having the opportunity to study at the Imperial University, he mastered such disciplines as grammar, rhetoric, physics, and logic. Considering the position in society in which Gregory was located, an enviable career could have opened up before him, but he preferred spiritual life to secular well-being.

It is difficult to say when exactly he began to think seriously about monasticism. It is only known that during his studies he had contact with Svyatogorsk monks. This communication affected him in the most positive way: he changed his attitude towards life and rebuilt his behavior pattern.

Quotes

“Just as the separation of the soul from the body is the death of the body, so the separation of God from the soul is the death of the soul. And this is mainly death, the death of the soul. God pointed to it, and when, giving the commandment in paradise, he said to Adam: “On the day you eat from the forbidden tree, you will die” (Genesis 2:17). For then his soul died, having been separated from God through a crime; in body he continued to live from that hour onwards until he was nine hundred and thirty years old.”

“The Apostle Paul said well that “the sorrow of this world makes death” (2 Cor. 7:10). For if the true life of the soul is the divine light that comes from crying for God, as said above in the words of the fathers, then the death of the soul will be the evil darkness that comes upon the soul from the sadness of this world.”

“This is why God created this life for us, to give room for repentance. If this had not happened, then the person who sinned would immediately lose this life. ... Since the time of life is thus the time of repentance, then the very fact that the sinner is still alive serves for him, if he wishes to turn to God, as a guarantee that he will be mercifully accepted by Him. For in real life, autocracy is always in force...everyone always has the opportunity, if they want, to acquire eternal life.”

“Who will not confess grace and give thanks to the Deliverer from death and the Giver of life? – And He also promises to give a reward and an inexpressible reward. “I am”, he says, “I am dead, but I have stomach, and I have more to spare” (John 10:10). What's more? Not only to abide and live by His power, but also to be His brothers and joint heirs. This superfluity is a reward given to those who flow to the life-giving vine and are born on it, who work on themselves and cultivate themselves.”

“After the resurrection of the soul, which is its return to God through the fulfillment of the Divine commandments, the resurrection of the body will follow when it is again united with the soul; This resurrection will be followed by true immortality and co-eternity with God.”