Saint Gregory Palamas: Monk, Theologian, and Defender of Hesychasm

This Sunday, on the Second Sunday of Lent, the Orthodox Church honors Saint Gregory Palamas, a 14th-century monk-bishop celebrated for his teachings on prayer and the experience of God’s divine light​.

His commemoration in the midst of Lent is no accident – Gregory’s life and legacy remind us that deep spiritual prayer can lead to a true encounter with God. In fact, the Church sets aside the second Sunday of every Lent to celebrate this saint, recognizing him as a champion of Orthodox spirituality and a defender of the faith​.

How did a humble monk come to be so important that an entire Sunday of Lent bears his name? Let’s explore his story and why his “light-bearing” theology shines especially bright during the Lenten season.

From Mount Athos to Thessaloniki: A Life of Holiness

Saint Gregory was born in 1296 in Constantinople (modern Istanbul) into a prominent family, but he gave up a life of privilege to seek God. In his early twenties, he traveled to Mount Athos, the “Holy Mountain” of Orthodox monasticism in Greece, and became a monk​.

Gregory embraced the ascetic life – a life devoted to prayer, fasting, and simplicity – at monasteries like Vatopedi and Esphigmenou on Athos. He even inspired his widowed mother and siblings to embrace monastic life as well, so wholehearted was his dedication to Christ​.

Tumultuous times soon interrupted his solitude. The threat of Turkish invasions forced Gregory and other monks to leave Mount Athos in 1326. He took refuge in the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece, where he was ordained a priest and continued his life of prayer.​

Even as a parish priest, Gregory maintained a monk’s discipline – spending weekdays in quiet prayer and stillness, and serving his community in liturgy on weekends.​

For some years he lived as a hermit on a remote mountain near Veria (Beroea), seeking spiritual stillness, before eventually returning to Athos around 1331.​

Gregory’s blend of contemplative life and pastoral care did not go unnoticed; he became respected for his deep spiritual wisdom. In 1347 he was appointed Archbishop of Thessaloniki, the leading hierarch of that region​.

Though political turmoil delayed him from fully assuming that post until 1350, Gregory served as a loving pastor and an inspired teacher to his flock. He would be canonized as a saint in 1368, a mere nine years after his repose – a testament to the impact he had on the Church​.

Defender of Hesychasm and the Uncreated Light

In Gregory’s era, a vigorous debate arose over how humans can know God. Monks on Mount Athos (like Gregory himself) practiced a mystical tradition of prayer called Hesychasm – from the Greek hesychia, meaning “stillness” or “silence.” This involved retreating in quiet, constant prayer (often the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”), and disciplining the mind and body through fasting and vigilance​.

The Athonite monks reported experiencing a radiant spiritual light during prayer. They believed this was the same Uncreated Light that shone around Jesus Christ at the Transfiguration – in other words, a direct encounter with God’s energy or glory.

A scholar from Italy named Barlaam of Calabria encountered these monks and scoffed at their claims. Influenced by academic philosophy, Barlaam argued that God was so transcendent that personal experience of God was impossible – he felt people should seek God only through rational study and could never truly “see” God​.

To him, the contemplative monks wasting long hours in prayer were misguided. Saint Gregory vehemently rose to defend the monks’ way of prayer (and Hesychasm itself) when asked to respond to Barlaam’s criticisms​.

Gregory knew from the Bible and the lives of the saints that God does reveal Himself to those purified in heart. He reminded everyone that the prophets and apostles had experienced God – seeing His glory or hearing His voice – not through book learning but through faith and holiness​.

Gregory’s defense introduced a crucial theological clarification: the distinction between God’s essence and God’s energies. In simple terms, he taught that God’s essence – the inner being of God – remains utterly beyond our comprehension. However, God freely comes to us through His energies (grace, light, divine actions), which we can experience​.

This meant that the light the monks beheld in prayer was real and holy, not a hallucination – it was God’s uncreated divine light, the same light that transfigured Christ on Mount Tabor, albeit invisible to the naked eye but revealed to purified souls​.

Gregory explained that while no one can ever fully grasp God’s essence, through prayer and purity of heart one can participate in God’s energies and truly know Him in a personal way.​

All authentic spiritual life, he argued, is the result of these divine energies at work in us, through the Holy Spirit.​

This teaching, though profound, was not new – it echoed the understanding of earlier Church Fathers – but Gregory articulated it clearly against Barlaam’s attacks. The controversy raged for years, with councils held in Constantinople to examine the issue. Ultimately, St. Gregory’s position was vindicated: Church synods in 1341, 1347, and 1351 upheld the hesychast doctrine and condemned the skeptics​.

His major treatise The Triads and other writings became classic texts of Orthodox theology. By affirming that humans can genuinely encounter God’s grace and light through humility and prayer, Gregory Palamas safeguarded the mystical heart of Christianity. The Church later conferred on him titles like “Father of the Church” and “Ecumenical Teacher,” ranking him among the great theologians of Orthodox tradition​.

A Lenten Hero: Second Sunday of Lent in His Honor

Why is Saint Gregory Palamas celebrated specifically on the second Sunday of Great Lent? In the Orthodox calendar, each Sunday of Lent has a special theme to encourage the faithful. The first Sunday of Lent (Sunday of Orthodoxy) celebrates the victory of true faith over heresy in the era of the icons. Similarly, the second Sunday is seen as a “second triumph of Orthodoxy,” commemorating St. Gregory’s victory over false teachings and his defense of the true path to knowing God​.

By placing his feast during Lent, the Church highlights that Lent is not only about fasting from foods but also about renewing our prayer life and seeking the living presence of God, just as Gregory taught.

Saint Gregory’s example and teaching perfectly fit the Lenten journey. He is honored as a hero of Orthodox spirituality – one who kept alive the experience of inner prayer and divine light in the Church. In the hymns for this day, he is called a “pillar of the Church” and “radiant beacon of light”, because he guides people to the light of Christ. His fast-track canonization (within a decade of his death) and the institution of this special Sunday show how deeply the Church treasures his contributions​.

To this day, his relics rest in a silver shrine at the Cathedral of Thessaloniki, where believers venerating him give thanks for the spiritual inheritance he left.

In the words of Saint Gregory’s own era, his life proclaims that “God is light” and that in His light we can see Light. By following Saint Gregory’s example of fervent prayer and stillness, we carry forward his legacy, hoping to glimpse the same uncreated light of God as we journey toward the joy of Pascha.