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Late Byzantine Hesychasm
It began as an intellectual movement, which taught that communication with God is possible through personal contemplation and prayer in combination with special physical exercises to help concentration. The aim of this process was the attainment of theosis, that is the personal experience, on the part of the one who prays, of the Holy Light (the light of Mount Tabor, according to the Bible), which reveals itself suddenly before him. This strict and mystical spirituality was accompanied by an ascetic view of life and indifference to material wealth, and at the same time by a deep concern for the poor. This could be achieved only if the person who prayed believed in two basic principles. First, that personal wholeness and communication with God is possible only within the Church, and second that no other non-Christian system of thought could contend in the mind of the Christian with the revelation of Christ. Basing themselves on these principles of monastic austerity, Christian morality and social concern for the poor, the Patriarchs of Constantinople of the beginning of the 14th century initiated the hesychast movement. From it the Patriarchate drew the strength which often allowed it to follow a different policy from that of the emperor - especially on the issue of relations with the West - as well as to maintain its influence over the Slavic countries.
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esychasm in the Late Byzantine period was first preached at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century by 