Nicholas Cabasilas: portrait of a hesychast in the world

This article offers a historical and theological study devoted to Nicolas Cabasilas, a fourteenth-century Byzantine mystic canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1984. Marie-Hélène Congourdeau traces Cabasilas's intellectual and spiritual formation in Thessalonica and Constantinople, his activity as a jurist and imperial adviser, and his role as a conciliator in the political and religious conflicts of his time. The article shows that the singularity of Cabasilas lies in his conception of a lay hesychasm: grounded in the sacraments of baptism, chrismation, and the Eucharist, and animated by interior prayer, this path to holiness is addressed to every baptized person, regardless of their state of life. The theological contribution of the article is to situate this spirituality within its Palamite context while highlighting its universal character and its modernity.