PALAMA and PALAMISM. — Gregorio P., Byzantine theologian of the 14th century and founder of the new doctrinal tendency known by his name as Palamism, was born of a noble family around 1269 in Constantinople and died in Thessalonica on 14 November 1359. On Mount Athos he received the monastic hesychasm (v.), although he was able to practise the secluded life of prayer only rarely because of the continual disputes he had to sustain in the capital of the Empire with the opponents of his system, namely Patriarch Calecas and the philosophers Barlaam, Akindynos, and Nicephoros Gregoras.
After obtaining the see of Thessalonica, he was summoned twice to Constantinople, and, after suffering harsh imprisonment at the hands of the Turks, died in his see (Philotheos Kokkinos, Λόγος ἐγκαμισατικός: PG 151, 635 D). A most prolific writer, he left many ascetical, hagiographical, homiletic, and, above all, polemical-theological works, most of them still unpublished. In the Byzantine-Russian schismatic Church he has been venerated as a saint since 1368, on the day of his death, and is solemnly commemorated in the acclamations of the “Feast of Orthodoxy.”
When silence was imposed on the two contending parties in 1341, and Barlaam had disappeared through his flight, the Empire was thrown into turmoil by Cantacuzeno’s ambitious maneuvers following the sudden death of Andronico III. P. succeeded in having his ideas approved in the synod held at ag. and presided over by Cantacuzeno that same year, and in the Tome (interpolated) written afterward (Ἐπανετός: PG 151, 679–92). At that point Patriarch Giovanni Caleca synodically condemned P.’s writings and, despairing of his repentance, pronounced the excommunication (4 November 1344). But then the situation changed rapidly and decisively: in May 1347 Cantacuzeno entered Constantinople victoriously, reached an amicable settlement with Empress Anna, deposed Caleca from the patriarchate, and the Palamites occupied the principal episcopal sees, including Thessalonica, which the new patriarch Isidoro entrusted to P. After two years Isidoro was succeeded by Calisto, who, with Cantacuzeno’s support, had the most important Palamite Synod celebrated in May–June 1351. There the newest doctrinal positions of P. were approved and ratified by Nilo Cabasilas and Filoteo Kokkinos in the celebrated Tome Οὔτε μὲν τὴν κατὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας (Dositeo, Τόμος Ἀγάπης, pp. 52–84; PG 151, 717–64). For the final triumph of Palamism, only the solemn acceptance of the new theology as the official theology of the Byzantine Church was lacking; this took place in July 1352, when a summary of it was included in the acclamations of the Sunday known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy. After the last Palamite Synod of 1368, held for the condemnation of Procoro Cidone and the canonization of P., no further official decisions concerning Palamism were issued among the “Orthodox”; it nevertheless continued to exist, though in a mitigated form, and even today is experiencing a revival among certain Greek-Russian writers.
Palamite doctrine, proceeding from purity of heart as a prerequisite for contemplation and believing the Taboric light to be the divine reality manifested to the soul of the righteous person, who otherwise cannot see God, found its strength in the real distinction between God and divinity, divine nature and divine Persons, and divine essence and the divine properties proceeding from the essence; it thus established primary and secondary elements within the very notion of God. This distinction constitutes the central point of the system.
Palamism therefore directly opposes the Catholic dogma of the absolute simplicity of God, which was also always upheld by the Byzantine Church, to such an extent that it had to
La Chiesa cattolica in non pochi documenti ha condannato indirettamente il palamismo (Denz-U, 294, 389-392, 431-32) e, avuto conto della storia del decreto Pro Graecis, anche direttamente nel Concilio Fiorentino nella questione dei Novissimi (Denz-U, 693; E. Candal, Concilium Florentinum, II, 1, Roma 1942, pp. L-LI e 86-90, nn. 101-107).