Gregory Palamas

Saint Gregory Palamas
Byzantine icon of St. Gregory Palamas
Archbishop of Thessalonica
Born	1296 Constantinople
Died	November 14, 1359 Thessaloniki
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodoxy Byzantine Catholicism
Canonized	1368, Constantinople by Patriarch Philotheos of Constantinople
Major shrine	Thessaloniki
Feast	Second Sunday of Great Lent November 14
Attributes	Long, tapering dark beard, vested as a bishop, holding a Gospel Book or scroll, right hand raised in benediction
Influenced	Nilus Cabasilas, Nicodemus the Hagiorite, John Meyendorff

Gregory Palamas (Γρηγόριος Παλαμάς) (1296–1359) was a monk of Mount Athos in Greece and later the Archbishop of Thessaloniki known as a preeminent theologian of Hesychasm. The teachings embodied in his writings defending Hesychasm against the attack of Barlaam are sometimes referred to as Palamism, his followers as Palamites. Palamas is venerated as a Saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Some Byzantine Catholic Churches, which are in communion with Rome, venerate him in the liturgy, and he has been called a saint and has been repeatedly cited as a great theological writer by Pope John Paul II. Some of his writings are collected in the Philokalia. The second Sunday of the Great Lent is called the Sunday of Gregory Palamas in those Churches that commemorate him according to the Byzantine Rite. He also has a feast day on November 14.

Gregory was born in Constantinople in the year 1296. His father was a courtier of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282–1328), but he died soon after Gregory was born. The Emperor himself took part in the raising and education of the fatherless boy. The Emperor had hoped that the gifted Gregory would devote himself to government service. St Gregory received his secular philosophical training from .

Despite the Emperor's ambitions for him, Gregory, then barely twenty years old, withdrew to Mount Athos in the year 1316 and became a novice there in the Vatopedi monastery under the guidance of the monastic Elder St Nicodemos of Vatopedi. Eventually, he was tonsured a monk, and continued his life of asceticism. After the demise of the Elder Nicodemus, Gregory spent eight years of spiritual struggle under the guidance of a new Elder, Nicephorus. After this last Elder's repose, Gregory transferred to the Great Lavra of St. Athanasius the Athonite on Mount Athos, where he served the brethren in the trapeza (refectory) and in church as a cantor. Wishing to devote himself more fully to prayer and asceticism he entered a skete called Glossia, where he taught the ancient practice of mental prayer known as "prayer of the heart" or Hesychasm.