St Hesychius the Chorebite.

September 30

From the Prologue

He was at first careless for his soul's salvation, but he became seriously ill and died, and came back from the dead and was healed. This wrought a profound change in him. He shut himself in a cell on the Holy Mountain and spoke not a single word to anyone for twelve years. Before his death, the monks opened his cell and begged him to give them some instruction. He only said: 'He who ponders on death cannot sin.' From him descended those knows as the `hesychast', who held silence, pondering on God and mental prayer to be chief works of the true monk. They had a skate, known as the Hesychast or Silent, on the Holy Mountain. It is said of Gregory the Theologian that he was hesychast during the great Fast. St Hesychius lived in the sixth century.

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