Memorial Day of St. Gregory Palamas

There are many holidays in the November church calendar November 27 (14 old style) marks several memorable dates, including the day of remembrance of the Byzantine saint Gregory Palamas The saint was born at the very end of the 13th century, and his conscious activity dates back to the first half of the 14th century At this time, the Byzantine Empire was gradually declining, and its existence was in danger of ending soon But it was precisely during these times that the final canons and postulates of faith were established in the Orthodox Christian religion The activities and works of Gregory Palamas played a great role in the correct understanding of Christian subtleties The family of the young Gregory, fleeing the Turkish invasion, finds shelter at the court of the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus himself There the future saint receives a wonderful education, studying ancient Greek philosophers and science The young man is predicted to have a brilliant public and academic career, but he prefers to devote himself to serving the Christian faith and at the age of 20 he becomes a monk Gregory becomes a novice of the monastery on the holy Mount Athos, practicing hesychasm - that is, the comprehension of Orthodox truths in a state of peace and silence And even having received the rank of priest in Thessaloniki, Palamas managed to combine it with the hermitage of hesychasm Soon Gregory had to prove the truth of his chosen path, the impetus for which was the attacks of the learned monk Varlaam After ridiculing the hesychasts and declaring their teaching heretical, a long dispute began between the monks In 1341, the subject of their disagreement was the question of the nature of the Tabor light This light was revealed to the disciples of Christ on Mount Tabor and, according to Palamas, is an expression of divine power, accessible to perception, but not created or sensible The explanation expressed by Gregory was recognized at the Council of Constantinople as the only correct one, and Balaam’s contradictions were declared heresy But, despite the recognition, very soon the saint was excommunicated from the church and imprisoned for three long years, finding himself undesirable to the government elite The change of power again calls Palamas to state affairs and disputes, but on the way to Constantinople he was captured by a Turkish pirate ship Gregory was a captive of pirates for about a year; all this time he did not give up trying to open the light of the true Christian faith to the robbers After his release, he lived for several years in his diocese, where his fame as a miracle worker and healer began, where the appearance of John the Theologian descended on him, and where he met his death The relics of St Gregory were kept in the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia until the capture of Constantinople by the Turks Next, the relics were transferred to the Solunsky Monastery and to the main cathedral of this city In 1914, the new cathedral was illuminated in the name of St Gregory of Palamas, where his holy miraculous relics are kept And on December 20, 2009, all members of the saint’s family were canonized by the Greek Orthodox Church: parents, two sisters and two brothers And today, Gregory’s literary works are revered and translated into many languages, where he finds words to explain the most sublime subtleties of the Orthodox faith