THE TRADITION OF HESYCHASM AND THE FOLK (SECULAR) RELIGIOUS RITUAL BEHAVIOUR OF THE GREEK PEOPLE

Abstract

The study investigates the way in which the Hesychastic tradition, which began with the Holy Mountain (Athos) and spread through the Hesychastic Fathers to many Greek regions, affected the formation of the practices of Greek folk religious life. For this purpose, we analyse the works of the Greek novelist Alexander Papadiamantis and the religious life of the people of his time reflected in them. Thus, we discover that many displays of Greek folk religiosity up to the current times derive from the teachings and principles of the Hesychastic movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.