Conclusions of the Conference

We have all noted how hesychast spirituality from the beginning of the fourteenth century until today has enriched the cultures of Orthodox nations among the Slavs, in Greece, and in Romania. It seems to me that here wee are in the presence of a very important fact for the Church of today: a solid spirituality, inspired by the Gospel and by Tradition, acts as a yeast in the dough of sanctity. The role played by St Gregory of Sinai and his influence in Greece, in Bulgaria, and in Romania has been recalled. We have heard various references to St Paisij Vely?kovs’kyj and the Optina monastery. We have listened to talks about the hesychast renewal in Romania, which promoted a theological renaissance (father Dumitru Staniloae) and which became the soul of resistance to the totalitarian communist ideology. I consider that the question posed almost a hundred years ago by archimandrite Ilarion Troickij, “progress or transfiguration”, illustrates two alternative models of civilization.

The message of the ecumenical patriarch warned us not to separate the glory of the transfiguration from the cross. The spiritual teaching of St Ignatius Brjan?aninov has recalled this. St Silvan of Athos proposes to us his kenotic “blessed humility” as the road leading to the glory of Christ transfigured.