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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture 14. November is also the feast day of: Gregory Palamas (d. 1359). The theologian G. (his surname Palamas is an oxytone, BTW) came from a wealthy family in Constantinople and was educated with the imperial service in mind. But in 1316, when he was about the age of twenty or twenty-one, he withdrew instead to Mt. Athos. After stays at Vatopaidi and the Great Lavra he joined the skete of Glossia where he taught the hesychastic practice of a life of mental prayer as espoused by such desert fathers as Evagrius of Pontus and Macarius the Great. In 1326 G. moved to Thessaloniki and was ordained priest there. Ten years later, after he had lived in a series of small hermitages, G. entered into correspondence with the more philosophically oriented Barlaam of Calabria over aspects of Athonite theology to which Barlaam objected. In a series of writings that were endorsed by local councils at Constantinople in 1341, 1347, and 1351 he formulated hesychast theology in a systematic way. Still, during the civil war of 1341-1347 he was imprisoned by the patriarch because of political differences. A change in patriarchs in 1347 led both to G.'s release and to his appointment to the metropolitan see of Thessaloniki, where however local opposition prevented him from even entering the city. It was only some three years before his death that G. was able to take up his see. G. was glorified in 1368 by patriarch Philotheos I, whose oration written for that occasion serves as G.'s biography (BHG 718). He has yet to grace the pages of the RM. G. (detail of a full-length portrait) as depicted in the earlier sixteenth-century frescoes (1545-1546) by Theofanis Strelitzas-Bathas (a.k.a. Theophanes the Cretan) in the katholikon of the Stavronikita monastery on Mt. Athos: http://www.vodka.gr/eikones/14_nov_gregory_palamas.jpg The composition as a whole (G. at left; at right, St. Gregory of Nazianzus): http://tinyurl.com/28c7xgo G.'s relics in the St. Gregory Palamas cathedral in Thessaloniki: http://www.rel.gr/photo/displayimage.php?album=9&pos=0 Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html