Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, defender of the Orthodox doctrine of Divine light, was born in 1296 in Asia Minor. During the Turkish invasion, the family fled to Constantinople and found shelter at the court of Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282-1328). Gregory's father became a major dignitary under the emperor, but soon died. Andronikos himself took part in the upbringing and education of the orphaned boy, who had excellent abilities and great diligence.
Gregory, having barely reached the age of 20, retired to the Holy Mount Athos and entered the Vatopedi monastery as a novice, where, under the leadership of St. Nicodemus of Vatopedi, he began the path of asceticism and took monastic vows. A year later, the holy evangelist John the Theologian appeared to him in a vision and promised his spiritual patronage. Gregory's mother, along with his sisters, soon also became a monk.
After the repose of St. Nicodemus, the monk Gregory went through his prayer feat for 8 years under the leadership of Elder Nikephoros, and after the death of the latter he moved to the Lavra of St. Athanasius of Athos. But three years later, striving for higher levels of spiritual perfection, he settled in the small hermitage of Glossia. The rector of this monastery, Gregory, began to teach the young man the concentrated spiritual prayer — to smart work, which was gradually developed and assimilated by the monks, starting from the great hermits of the 4th century. After the external prayer techniques of smart work received detailed coverage in the 11th century in the works of Simeon the New Theologian, it was assimilated by the Athonite ascetics. The experimental use of smart work, which requires solitude and silence, was called hesychasm (from the Greek peace, silence), and its practitioners themselves began to be called hesychasts.
Due to the threat of attack by the Turks, St. Gregory moved with his brethren to Thessalonica (Thessalonica), where he was then ordained to the priesthood. Saint Gregory combined his duties as presbyter with the life of a hermit. On Saturday and Sunday, the shepherd went out to the people — performed services and preached sermons. Sometimes Saint Gregory attended theological meetings of the city's educated youth. He gathered a small community of hermit monks and led it for 5 years. In 1331, the saint retired to Athos and retired to the monastery of St. Sava, near the Lavra of St. Athanasius. In 1333 he was appointed abbot of the Esphigmen monastery in the northern part of the Holy Mountain. In 1336, the saint returned to the monastery of St. Sava, where he took up theological works, which he did not leave until the end of his life.
In the 30s of the 14th century, events were brewing in the life of the Eastern Church that placed St. Gregory among the great universal apologists of Orthodoxy. Around 1330, the learned monk Varlaam came to Constantinople from Calabria. Soon Barlaam went to Athos, became acquainted there with the way of spiritual life of the Hesychasts and, based on the dogma of the incomprehensibility of the being of God, declared smart work a heretical delusion. Barlaam entered into an argument with the monks and tried to prove the creation of the Tabor Light; at the same time, he did not hesitate to laugh at the stories of monks about prayer techniques and spiritual insights.
Saint Gregory gave a speech on the defense of the doctrine of the Divine Tabor Light. At the Council of Constantinople in 1341, in the Hagia Sophia, there was a dispute between St. Gregory Palamas and Barlaam, focusing on the nature of the Tabor Light. On May 27, 1341, the Council adopted the provisions of St. Gregory Palamas that God, inaccessible in His Essence, reveals Himself in energies like the Tabor Light, which are addressed to the world and accessible to perception, but are not created. Although Barlaam's teachings were condemned as heresy and he himself was anathematized, the disputes between the Palamites and the Barlaamites did not end. The Patriarch excommunicated St. Gregory from the Church (1344) and subjected him to a prison sentence that lasted three years. In 1347, when John XIV was succeeded on the patriarchal throne by Isidore (1347 - 1349), Saint Gregory Palamas was released and elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Thessalonica. In 1351, the Council of Blachernae solemnly witnessed the Orthodoxy of his teaching.
Three years before his death, St. Gregory returned to Solun. On the eve of his repose, St. John Chrysostom appeared to him in a vision. With the words «B mountain! In mountain!» saint Gregory Palamas peacefully reposed before God on November 14 (old style), 1359. In 1368, he was canonized at the Council of Constantinople under Patriarch Philotheus (1354-1355, 1362-1376), who wrote a life and service to the saint.