Definition of Hesychast in English:
A member of a movement dedicated to interior prayer, originating among the Orthodox monks of Mount Athos in the 14th century.
- Symbolic actions are crucial to Eastern Christian liturgy and private prayer, most evident in the so-called ‘physical method’ of prayer taught by the Byzantine Hesychasts.
- Seeking the ways of development of the spiritual heart, Hesychasts invented the method called Jesus prayer.
- These links were forged long before the coming of Plethon to Mistra, but Plethon's neoplatonism was clearly related to the Hesychasts of Mt. Athos.
Mid 19th century: from late Greek hēsukhastēs 'hermit', from hēsukhazein 'be still', from hēsukhos 'still'.
Definition of Hesychast in:
- US English dictionary
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