The Calabrian Greek scholar-monk Barlaam of Seminara comes to Constantinople, where his theological and philosophical positions soon bring him into conflict with Athonite hesychasts and their defenders.
Gregory Palamas, already known on Mount Athos for his ascetic authority, enters sustained contact with Barlaam; their exchange becomes a key prelude to the later public dispute over hesychasm and theological knowledge of God.
In response to critiques associated with Barlaam, Palamas drafts the initial set(s) of his Triads for the Defense of Those Who Practice Sacred Quietude, establishing core claims about contemplative prayer and divine knowing that will define the controversy.
Athonite monastic leaders issue the Hagioritic Tome under Palamas’ influence, giving a systematic Athonite defense of hesychast practice and theology and helping unify monastic support for Palamas before the Constantinopolitan synods.
A synod at Constantinople condemns Barlaam’s anti-hesychast positions; Barlaam recants. This marks the first major ecclesiastical validation of Palamas’ defense of hesychasm.
A subsequent synod reaffirms the earlier decision and condemns Gregory Akindynos, who had emerged as a leading critic of Palamas after Barlaam’s eclipse; the dispute nonetheless continues amid escalating political tensions.
In the polarized atmosphere of the Byzantine civil conflict, Palamas is arrested (autumn 1342) and held for years, showing how theological debate and imperial politics had become tightly intertwined.
A synod at Constantinople (with anti-Palamite dominance) issues a decision against Palamas, including excommunication. This is the controversy’s clearest temporary reversal for the hesychast party before 1347.
Palamas is appointed (and consecrated) to the see of Thessalonica, signaling the hesychast party’s recovery of high office. His appointment also reflects the broader monastic revival’s influence on episcopal selection.
Akindynos, now the principal theological antagonist to Palamas, is condemned for heresy by a pro-Palamite synod (a condemnation later reinforced by subsequent anti-heretical listings and anathemas).
After John VI Kantakouzenos’ ascendancy in Constantinople, a synod deposes Patriarch John XIV Kalekas and condemns Akindynos—shifting institutional power decisively toward the Palamite party.
Isidore I Buchiras, a disciple of Palamas, becomes Ecumenical Patriarch (1347–1350). Under his patriarchate Palamas is released from imprisonment, enabling his restoration to public ecclesiastical leadership.
The synod at Constantinople (Blachernae) formally vindicates Palamas and condemns anti-Palamite positions, issuing a synodal Tome that entrenches Palamite teaching—especially the essence–energies distinction—as authoritative within Byzantine Orthodoxy.
Hesychasm, the Palamite Controversy, and Monastic Revival (1320s–1351)
