Constantinople (Istanbul)·1296 – 1359
Γρηγόριος Παλαμάς
St. Gregory Palamas
The Theologian of the Uncreated Light
He proved that the light the monks saw was the light of God Himself.
“God is not only beyond knowledge, but beyond unknowing.”
Life
Born around 1296 in Constantinople to a noble family close to the imperial court, Gregory received an exceptional education in philosophy and rhetoric. At twenty, he renounced a promising political career and withdrew to Mount Athos, the monastic republic in northern Greece, where he practiced the Hesychast method of prayer — silent repetition of the Jesus Prayer with attention fixed in the heart.
When the Calabrian monk Barlaam attacked the Hesychasts as deluded navel-gazers, Gregory rose to their defense. In the Triads, he articulated a crucial distinction: God’s essence remains forever unknowable, but God’s energies — His uncreated light — can be directly experienced by the purified soul. This was the same light the apostles saw on Mount Tabor.
The councils of 1341 and 1351 vindicated his theology. He was consecrated Archbishop of Thessalonica in 1347. He died on 14 November 1359 and was canonized in 1368. His theology remains the foundation of Orthodox spiritual practice.
One Heart
“The heart that has been purified by unceasing prayer beholds the uncreated light of God.”
Teachings
The Essence-Energies Distinction
God’s essence is forever beyond all human knowing. But God’s energies — His uncreated light, grace, and love — are God Himself reaching out to creation, and can be directly experienced.
Theosis — Deification
The human being is called not merely to obey God but to participate in God’s own nature. Through grace and prayer, the soul is transfigured — not absorbed into God’s essence, but irradiated by His light.
The Jesus Prayer as Path
The continuous repetition of “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” draws the mind into the heart. This prayer of the heart is the practical means by which the uncreated light is received.
Works & Publications
The Triads
His major theological work defending the Hesychasts and articulating the essence-energies distinction.
One Hundred and Fifty Chapters
A concise summary of his theological and spiritual teaching.
Homilies
Sixty-three sermons delivered as Archbishop, rich in mystical theology.
An Inspiration
Palamas’s insistence that God can be directly experienced — not merely believed in — mirrors the Advaitic emphasis on anubhava (direct experience) over mere scriptural knowledge.