Hesychasm

HESYCHASM. - A system characteristic of Eastern asceticism, which from the mid-14th century increasingly became synonymous with Palamism, since the early Palamites were strenuous supporters of the method of prayer prevailing in their times among the Hesychasts of Mount Athos; indeed, in defending its nature and legitimacy against Barlaam of Seminara, they took from Hesychasm the first steps toward a new and unsuspected system of theological doctrine, which became official in the Byzantine Church. Yet the Hesychasm they championed was nothing but a corruption of the ancient one. From the detailed description given by the monk Nicephorus (PG 147, 963-64) one learns that a double element was essential to Athonite Hesychasm: omphaloscopy and the uninterrupted invocation of the so-called "Jesus Prayer": "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."

The Hesychast, seated in his cell, gazed fixedly at his navel while invoking Jesus until he attained introspection of the heart, that is, until God made him see within his own entrails His wondrous light bearing celestial joy, and he too was made invulnerable to the assaults of the enemy.

The errors of this strange method, from which derive the Palamite controversies over the nature of the light communicated by God to the contemplative soul and identified with the "Taboric" light, uncreated and eternal, though in reality distinct from the divine essence, were never taught, as many claim, by the famous Symeon the New Theologian (11th-12th centuries). Nevertheless in his authentic works, for example in the Opus Divinorum Amorum (PG 120, 507-602), one often encounters affirmations about the internal inspection of the heart and about divine illumination, which were later misunderstood by the monks of Mount Athos. Nor is Symeon the author of the anonymous writing Μέθοδος τῆς ἱερᾶς προσευχῆς καὶ προσοχῆς, which moreover, though deformed in certain passages so as to favor the ἀποκλάψυχοι, clearly shows the echo of Sinaitic spirituality, where the true Hesychasm of the Eastern Church is to be sought.

This legitimate state of solitary life within cenobitism, suited for devoting oneself to the quiet of contemplation (ἡσυχάσαι, whence ἡσυχασμός, from ἡσυχία = "tranquility of mind and body"), was already glimpsed by the great monastic legislator of the East, St. Basil (Reg. justus tractatus, VI-VIII: PG 31, 925-41), but always with many limitations and for a very restricted number of superior souls; it then appears described from the 5th century in its exterior lines in the Life of St. John the Hesychast, monk of the laura of St. Sabas (Acta SS. Maii, III, Antwerp 1680, pp. 232-38); and in its interior lines, a century later, in the 27th step of the Ladder of St. John Climacus, himself a representative of Sinaitic spirituality (PG 88, 1096-1101).

According to the model described there, the Hesychast must first faithfully observe the common life for some years; then, though enclosed in his cell (κελλιώτης), he remains under the authority of the monastic superior, and by him can be recalled to the life of the cloister. His duty in solitude will be to strive for perfect ἠσυχία, that is, bodily quiet, regulating all his movements according to virtue, and that of the spirit, seeking to introduce into the world of his thoughts the tranquility and peace necessary for contemplation. He must not undertake such a life unless he is fortified against the dangers of temptations and above all of ἀκρεία, that is, of sloth, and always feeling in himself the signs of a special vocation, such as the rapture toward God (ἁρπαγή) and the gift of tears.

From these ancient documents flows a praiseworthy Hesychasm, considered as a higher degree of monastic life, and it goes without saying that such asceticism should have been for only a few. Historically, however, very many followers of Hesychasm are found everywhere, who unfortunately often become true wanderers. Therefore various laws sought to restrict their number: thus Justinian (Nov., V, 3; CXXIII, 36), thus the Trullan Council (Mansi, XI, 964: can. 41), and the very founder of the monastery of Laura on Athos, St. Athanasius, whose constitutions permitted Hesychasm to only 5 of the most perfect out of 120 monks. Such prescriptions failed in the face of the desire for independence in the very populous lauras; and ignorance of true asceticism served to stain it with the aforementioned errors.

In degenerate Hesychasm many wish to discover the peaks of ancient spiritualistic sects condemned by the Church in the East, such as those of the Messalians in Cappadocia, of the Paulicians in Thrace and of the Bogomils in Bulgaria.

Emmanuele Candal