Hesychasm at the Holy Mountain: Athos
Hesychasm at the Holy Mountain: Athos
What is Hesychasm
Hesychasm refers to a mode of monasticism in which a monk lives in deprivation and prayer in isolation, usually in a remote area. The goal of a Hesychast is to experience God.
Hesychasm (/ˈhɛsɪkæzəm, ˈhɛzɪ-/[ is a contemplative monastic tradition in the Eastern Christian traditions of the Eastern Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church in which stillness (hēsychia) is sought through uninterrupted Jesus prayer.[web 1] While rooted in early Christian monasticism, it took its definitive form in the 14th century at Mount Athos. By practicing hesychasm the hesychast monks see a light which is uncreated Light of the Holy Trinity
Etymology
Hesychasm (Greek: ἡσυχασμός [isixaˈzmos]) derives from the word hesychia (ἡσυχία [isiˈçia]), meaning "stillness, rest, quiet, silence" and hesychazo (ἡσυχάζω [isiˈxazo]) "to keep stillness".
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware distinguishes five aspects of Hesychasm.
"solitary life", a sense, equivalent to "eremitical life", in which the term is used since the 4th century;
"the practice of inner prayer, aiming at union with God on a level beyond images, concepts and language";
"the quest for such union through the Jesus Prayer";
"a particular psychosomatic technique in combination with the Jesus Prayer", use of which technique can be traced back at least to the 13th century;
"the theology of St. Gregory Palamas", on which see Palamism.
History of Hesychasm
Under church tradition the practice of Hesychasm has it beginnings in the Bible, Matthew 6:6 and the Philokalia. The tradition of contemplation with inner silence or tranquility is shared by all Eastern asceticism having its roots in the Egyptian traditions of monasticism exemplified by such Orthodox monastics as St Anthony of Egypt.
In the early 14th century, Gregory Sinaita learned hesychasm from Arsenius of Crete and spread the doctrine, bringing it to the monks on Mount Athos.
Arrival at Mount Athos of St. Gregory of Sinai (c. 1260s – 1346)
One of the founders of the Hesychastic movement on Athos, Gregory of Sinai (1280-27 November 1346), who was born near Clazomenes in Asia Minor, lived in his youth in Cyprus and became a monk there from a Cypriot monk before he goes to Sinai, where he taught young people, then to the Holy Land and Crete, where he was introduced to the theory of Hesychasm, "nῆpsin" and "pure prayer" from Arsenius of Crete, and from there to Athos where he spread the mystical Hesychast ideology and practice ( 5). Although Gregory's biographer, Patriarch Callistos I of Constantinople, does not mention it, we do not at all exclude that Gregory took the first elements of his theory in Cyprus and Sinai, old centers of discussion and transmission of Eastern theological and philosophical ideas (cf. K. P. Kyrris in Byzantina, b,' 1970, pp. 65-105, in Revue des Et. Sud-Est Europ., IX, 1971,3, pp. 463-477 and in History of Cyprus, Nicosia, 1984, pp. 160-175).
"Although hesychasm had not gone completely extinct, by the 1920s it was rather the exception than the rule. When young Fragkiskos Kottis, later known as Saint Joseph the Hesychast, came to Athos in 1921 in search of a spiritual master to teach him the Jesus prayer, he found widespread hostility towards hesychasm, which was perceived as a deceit. When he did find some rare experienced hesychasts, like elders Kallinikos the Hesychast and Daniil of Katounakia, none of them waswilling to take new disciples (Dorobantu 2016, 33–34). Hesychasm had thus become odd evenamong hermits, let alone among the inhabitants of the decaying coenobitic and idiorrhytmic monasteries."
A documentary film on Saint Joseph the Hesychast
Source https://www.academia.edu/81872913/Hesychasm_at_the_Holy_Mountain_Athos_i...
How to practice hesychasm
"Withdrawal from worldly concerns, obedience, poverty, altruism, readiness for Church psalmody and diakonia, perseverance in face of the difficulties of the cenovion, are the fundamental virtues that free the cenobitic monk from selfishness and egocentricity, and introduce him to the first stages of hesychia according to Christ."
Archimandrite Georgios
Abbott of the Holy Monastery of St. Gregorios, Athos
Hesychast monks on Athos
Saint Euthymios the New, Saint Peter the Athonite and, later, Saint Athanasios, Saints Maximos, Nifon and Akakios the Kafsokalybite, Theofilos and Neilos Myroblitis, Saint Gregory of Sinai with his students, Saint Gregory the hesychast (the builder of the synonymous Athonite monastery) and the whole chorus of hesychast fathers of the 14th century, lead by Saint Gregory Palamas, the Kollyvades Fathers.
Twentieth century hesychasts:
Daniel Katounakiotis and Gerasimos Menagias; Ieronymos Simonopetritis, Athanasios Gregoriatis, Filaretos Konstamonitis and Kodratos Karakallinos; Kallinikos the hesychast; Saint Silouanos the Athonite, and his student Sofronios Sakharov, Isaac and Arsenios of Dionysiou monastery, were distinguished hesychasts.
More recent hesychasts:
Elders Paisios the Agiorite, Porphyrios Kavsokalybitis, Efraim Katounakiotis, and Haralampos Dionysiatis.Gerasimos Mikrayannanites, Modestos Danielides and Auxentios Gregoriates.
https://greekorthodoxchurch.org/neptic_monasticism.html
https://www.polignosi.com/cgibin/hweb?-A=1074&-V=limmata
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The real
Hesychasts, the real orthodox christians, hope they do not get internet,
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