Saint Hesychius the Horebite

Life

At first he was negligent regarding the salvation of his soul. But he fell gravely ill, and died, and returned from death, and was restored to health. This completely changed him. He shut himself in a cell on the Holy Mountain and did not speak a word to anyone for twelve years. Before his death the monks opened his cell and implored him to give them some instruction. He said only: "He who mindfully ponders death cannot sin." From him came the so-called "Hesychasts," who held silence, meditation on God, and the prayer of the mind to be the supreme activity of true monks. They had a special skete of Hesychasts, or those who kept silence, on the Holy Mountain. It is also said of Saint Gregory the Theologian that he was a practitioner of silence during the Honorable Fast. Saint Hesychius lived in the sixth century.