Hesychasts

Hesychasts (Gr. hēsychazein, 'to be quiet'), a mystic and contemplative sect of the Greek Church in the 14th century, who may be described as the Quietists of the East. A Basilian monk, named Barlaam, a native of Calabria, in the course of a visit to the monasteries of Greece, observed among the monks of Mount Athos several practices and doctrines which he considered grievously reprehensible, but one in especial. Believing that in the soul lay hidden a certain divine light, which it was the office of contemplation to evoke, the monks withdrew at stated times to a retired place, seated themselves on the earth, and fixed their eyes steadfastly on the centre of the stomach (whence the sobriquet by which they were known, omphalo- psychoi, 'navel souls'); and they averred that, after the allotted time of contemplation, a kind of heavenly light beamed forth upon them from the soul (whose seat, they held, was in that region), and filled them with ecstasy and supernatural delight. The monks were defended by Gregory Palamas, the Archbishop of Thessalonica; and councils in 1341 and 1351 pronounced in their favour. But the public voice was hostile to the sect, and they soon fell into obscurity. See Stein's monograph (Vienna, 1874).