Symeon the New Theologian
11th-century Byzantine monk and one of the three figures in Eastern Orthodoxy granted the title 'Theologian.'
Symeon the New Theologian was an 11th-century Byzantine monk and mystic whose writings on personal religious experience are among the most influential in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Born in Galatia in Paphlagonia and educated in Constantinople, he entered monastic life at the Stoudios monastery and later became abbot of the monastery of St. Mamas, also in Constantinople. He is one of only three figures in the Eastern Orthodox Church granted the title 'Theologian,' along with the Apostle John and Gregory of Nazianzus, a title reserved for those whose theological writings come from direct mystical experience of God. The 'New' was added to his title posthumously to distinguish him from the two earlier Theologians. His twenty-five surviving prayers, his Catechetical Discourses, and his Hymns of Divine Love emphasize the possibility and necessity of direct experience of God in this life, a theme that became foundational to the hesychast tradition of Orthodox spirituality that flowered three centuries later under Gregory Palamas. The Pre-Communion Prayer attributed to Symeon is one of the most-used prayers in modern Orthodox devotional life.