Saint Gregory Palamas: The Orthodox Champion Honored on the Second Sunday of Lent

The Second Sunday of Great Lent (March 16, 2025) is dedicated by our Church to commemorating Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki. Our Church highlights his memory during the second Sunday of the Great Fast as a continuation and extension of the first Sunday of Orthodoxy. Thus, the commemoration of Saint Gregory Palamas can be seen as a kind of second Sunday of Orthodoxy. Born at the end of the 13th century around 1296, he hailed from Asia Minor and was raised in the imperial court of Constantinople. He studied rhetoric, philosophy, and natural sciences with distinction. After his studies, he rejected offers of high positions and, at the age of 20, went to Mount Athos to pursue monastic life. Initially intending to become a monk in Jerusalem, he stayed near Thessaloniki after a vision of Saint Demetrius. Later, he returned to Mount Athos, where he reached great heights of illumination and engaged in doctrinal issues. He became abbot of the Esphigmenou Monastery for a year and later Archbishop of Thessaloniki for 12 years, enduring persecution due to his actions. He participated in the Synods of 1341 and 1347, combating heresies propagated by Barlaam and Akindynos. He authored numerous theological writings, especially dogmatic ones, and epistles addressing opponents. Gregory Palamas is renowned as the theologian of grace and uncreated light. He renewed theological terminology and provided new directions for theological thought, emphasizing personal experiences and proving theology surpasses philosophy and science. His fundamental contribution to theology includes distinguishing between God’s essence and energies. Humanity, being a mixture of two worlds, encapsulates all creation. Following Patristic teachings against Platonic and Barlaamite anthropology, he believed the human body is not evil but a dwelling place for the mind and even God. Human regeneration occurs through baptism, and renewal through the Divine Liturgy—both essential mysteries of divine economy. His teachings emphasize humanity’s elevation beyond this world and the experience of deification. He passed away on November 14, 1360. Immediately posthumously honored as a saint, he was officially canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1368. His relics are preserved in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Thessaloniki bearing his name.