From the Life of Maximus, the Capsocalyvite

This article presents the French translation, by Jacques Touraille, of an excerpt from the Life of Maximus the Capsocalyvite, a Greek philokalic text recounting the spiritual dialogue between Saint Gregory of Sinai and Saint Maximus, an atypical hesychast figure of the fourteenth century. The translation renders a conversation in which Maximus describes the Marian origin of his prayer of the heart and sets forth the doctrine of the action of the Holy Spirit upon the human intellect. The central idea is the distinction between authentic grace and demonic illusion, a fundamental criterion of discernment in the hesychast tradition. On the theological level, the text illustrates the contemplative pneumatology proper to Palamite hesychasm, articulating the Jesus Prayer, the rapture of the intellect, and concrete signs of grace, while emphasizing the ecclesiological and prophetic dimension of Eastern Christian mystical experience.