Our Holy Father Nicephorus the Hesychast.

Commemorated May 4 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

He was at first a Catholic, but then became Orthodox. He lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain as a monk, with the wise Theoleptus. He was a teacher of the famous Gregory Palamas, and wrote a work on mental prayer. He went peacefully to the Lord in the 14th century. He taught: 'Gather your mind and compel it to enter into your heart and remain there. When your mind is firmly in your heart, it must not remain empty, but must incessantly make the prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!" And it must never fall silent. Through this the whole string of the virtues: love, joy, peace and the others, will make their abode in you, by which, then, every request of yours to God will be fulfilled.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK