Saint Gregory Palamas was born in Constantinople. He was born in 1296 to virtuous parents, Constantine and Kalloni. His father was courtier, and later became a monk, and his mother and siblings also embraced monasticism.
Saint Gregory Palamas is considered a great figure in the golden chain of the Great Teachers and Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church. This important figure of the Orthodox Church was distinguished for his militant attitude in defense of the Orthodox doctrine.
Having received a broad education from Theodoros Metochitis (1270-1332), Emperor Andronicus II (1259-1332) wanted to appoint Saint Gregory to high office. At the age of twenty, he abandoned his studies in philosophy and theology and went to Mount Athos for the purification of passions, enlightenment and theosis, under the guidance of Elder Nikephorus, who led a monastic life near the Vatopedi Monastery. When the church needed him, he left the quiet Mount Athos, and traveled to Thessaloniki to defend the Orthodox doctrine.
In 1335 wit his first dogmatic piece of writing, the Apodictic Treatises on the Procession of the Holy Spirit, Saint Gregory clashed with the monk Barlaam from Calabria, Italy, who claimed that man cannot be united with God because He is completely inaccessible, unknownable and undemonstrable to humans. Palamas reacted to this heterodox teaching. Saint Gregory claimed that God existed in two ways. In His essence and in His divine and uncreated energies. God is unknowable in His essence to humans. But he can come to know and unite with Him through His divine and uncreated energies. Saint Gregory Palamas spoke clearly about the God who is in us and invites us to come to know and discover Him.
Three large councils, held in Constantinople (1341, 1347, 1351), endorsed Palamas’ positions as orthodox, justifying the hesychasts. At the same time, they condemned Barlaam and his followers, the monk Gregory Akyndinos and the philosopher Nikephoros Gregoras. However, due to the political turmoil, Patriarch Ioannis IV Kalekas (1334-1347) persecuted Saint Gregory Palamas, who was imprisoned in the palace prisons (1343). In 1347 he was finally acquitted and was elected Metropolitan of Thessaloniki.
However, the occupation of Thessaloniki by the Zealots did not allow Saint Gregory Palamas to settle there. It was not until 1350 that he was able to occupy the episcopal chair. He was soon forced to interfere with the emperors’ disputes, and on a trip to Constantinople, he was arrested by the Turks, who demanded a large sum of ransom in order to set him free. After his release (1355), and until his death from illness on November 14, 1359, he remained in Thessaloniki, where he was devoted to his pastoral duties.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate decided to canonize Saint Gregory Palamas by synodical decision taken in 1368. Metropolitan Church of Thessaloniki is dedicated to Saint Gregory Palamas. His sacred relics are kept there. He was a worthy archbishop who is called the Enlightener of Orthodoxy.
Source: Church of Cyprus