Saint Gregory Palamas, one of the pillars of Orthodoxy, was born in 1296 and reposed in 1359. He became a monk of Mount Athos (The Holy Mountain) and later became the Archbishop of Thessalonica. He lived in very difficult times, for many heresies were creeping into the Church and the Ottoman Empire was ever expanding taking over Byzantine lands. In the early 1300’s he wrote on the nature of the Holy Spirit, showing the errors of the Latin view while living at the hermitage of Saint Savas on Mount Athos. He became known as a preeminent theologian early in life, due to his many writings and for his beliefs on hesychasm.

The second Sunday of the Great Fast is called the Sunday of Gregory Palamas in all Orthodox Churches. His holy relics are kept in the Cathedral of Thessalonica. A full service was composed for his feast day by the Patriarch Philotheus in 1368, when it was established that his feast be celebrated on this day.

Saint Gregory is known as one of the great defenders of Orthodoxy and is most well known for his defense against the heresies of Barlaam. Gregory was asked to defend the Monastic ways of the Holy Mountain from the charges of Barlaam of Calabria who, influenced by the Latin church, believed that philosophy and human thought were the way to know God. Orthodoxy had always known, through the wisdom of the Holy Fathers, that prayer and fasting were the key to knowing God. Barlaam believed that the monks of Mount Athos were wasting their time in their prayers and fasting when they should be studying the great philosophers of mankind.

Saint Gregory said that the Holy Fathers and the prophets had a greater knowledge of God, because they had actually seen or heard God Himself. He taught that modern ideas about human thought and reason had no place in the Church. When asked how it is possible to have knowledge of the unknowable God, he showed the difference between knowing God in his essence or person and knowing God in his energies or being. It became clear that one could not find God in the logic of this world. He taught the Orthodox knowledge that it remains impossible to know God in His essence or person. However, with sufficient prayer and fasting and turning oneself over to God, through purification of one's soul, anyone could come to know Him in his energies and being.

The Barlaam heresies spanned many years and two phases. Due to acts of political power struggles in Constantinople, Gregory was imprisoned to prevent him from speaking the Truth. As the political struggle increased, his accusers multiplied because he would not yield to their heresies and he opposed the new emperor due to the emperor's acceptance of the heresies.

Eventually, Saint Gregory was vindicated and order was restored in the Church and the Empire.

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