Venerable (Monastic) 20th century

Joseph the Hesychast

1897/98–1959

Also known as Elder Joseph · Joseph the Cave-dweller · Joseph the Spelaiotis · Frangiskos (Francis) Kottis

A renewer of hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer on Mount Athos. Born Francis Kottis on the island of Paros, he lived as a strict ascetic at Katounakia, Little St Anne's, and New Skete, gathering a brotherhood whose disciples revitalized Athonite and American monasticism.

Feast Day

August 16

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Joseph the Hesychast

Life

Joseph the Hesychast (born Francis Kottis on the island of Paros) was a Greek monk of Mount Athos remembered as a renewer of the hesychast tradition and of the continual practice of the Jesus Prayer. Drawn to monastic life after reading the lives of the Church Fathers, he settled on the Holy Mountain in 1921 and spent nearly four decades in some of its most austere settlements, devoting himself to silence, vigil, and ceaseless prayer.

Though he remained a simple, unordained monk, he gathered a small brotherhood whose members later became influential elders across Athos and beyond. Through disciples such as Ephraim of Philotheou (later of Arizona), Joseph of Vatopaidi, Ephraim of Katounakia, and Charalambos of Dionysiou, his ascetic discipline shaped the repopulation of several Athonite monasteries and the spread of Athonite monasticism to North America.

He reposed on August 15, 1959, the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. Sixty years later the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople moved to glorify him: his canonization was announced at Karyes on Mount Athos in October 2019 and confirmed by synodal decision in March 2020, his feast being fixed for August 16, the day after the Dormition.

Timeline 9 moments Read Hide

Feb 12, 1897 Birth on Paros Born Francis (Fragkiskos) Kottis at Lefkes on the island of Paros to George and Maria Kottis, the third of seven children. Sources differ between 1897 and 1898 for the year of his birth.
c. 1920 Call to monastic life After his father's early death he helped support the family, served in the Greek Navy, and worked as a vendor in Piraeus and Athens. Reading the lives of saints and ascetics, he kept nocturnal prayer on Mount Penteli and resolved to become a monk.
1921 Arrival on Mount Athos He came to Katounakia on Mount Athos and joined the Daniel (Danielaioi) Brotherhood under Daniel Katounakiotis of Smyrna. There he met Arsenios the Cave-Dweller, who became his lifelong companion in the ascetic life.
Aug 31, 1925 Monastic tonsure Aged twenty-eight, he was tonsured a monk and given the name Joseph (Joseph of Vigla), traditionally associated with the cave of Athanasius the Athonite.
1928 Skete of St Basil Joseph and Arsenios relocated to the Skete of St Basil, where they kept an extreme regimen of fasting and prayer, living through the winters on a few ounces of rusks a day with occasional boiled wild greens.
1938 Little St Anne's Having begun to accept disciples, he established a small community of about seven monks at Little St Anne's Skete, forming cells near a chapel.
1953 Move to New Skete On account of the physical demands of Little St Anne's, the brotherhood moved to New Skete, nearer the sea, which became Joseph's final residence.
Aug 15, 1959 Repose He reposed on the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos after attending the vigil, and was buried at New Skete.
Oct 2019 – Mar 2020 Glorification Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew announced his glorification at Karyes in October 2019; the Holy Synod of Constantinople formally entered him in the calendar of saints on March 9, 2020, with August 16 as his feast.

Contributions & Legacy

3 contributions Read Hide

Ascetic life and hesychasm

Joseph is remembered above all for the rigor of his pursuit of inner prayer. Accounts of his life describe long nightly vigils in which he recited the Jesus Prayer for hours from sunset, austere sleep taken sitting in a chair rather than lying in a bed, and a diet reduced in the wilderness huts of St Basil to a few ounces of rusks a day, sometimes with boiled wild greens.

His teaching centered on watchfulness (nepsis) and the continual invocation of the name of Jesus, the heart of the hesychast tradition. The lives transmitted by his disciples relate that, after a period of struggling without a guide, he received the gift of ceaseless prayer, a turning point recounted in the traditional accounts of his life.

Brotherhood and disciples

Although he never sought office and remained an unordained monk, Joseph drew to himself a brotherhood whose members became some of the most consequential Athonite figures of the later twentieth century. His constant companion was Arsenios the Cave-Dweller; his own brother joined the community as the monk Athanasios.

Among his disciples were Ephraim, abbot of Philotheou and afterward the founder of numerous monasteries in North America; Joseph of Vatopaidi, later a leading figure of Vatopedi Monastery; Ephraim of Katounakia; and Charalambos, abbot of Dionysiou. Through them his discipline of prayer is credited with helping to repopulate several of the ruling monasteries of Mount Athos and with carrying the Athonite monastic tradition abroad.

Glorification and veneration

Joseph's veneration grew rapidly in the decades after his repose, sustained by the testimony of his disciples and the circulation of his letters. In October 2019, during a homily at the Protaton church in Karyes, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew announced that the Patriarchate of Constantinople would canonize him together with other twentieth-century Athonite elders.

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate formally added him to the calendar of saints on March 9, 2020, fixing his commemoration for August 16, the day after the Dormition on which he had reposed. He was later also entered in the calendar of the Romanian Orthodox Church. His relics, including his skull, are venerated, and his life has been the subject of published collections of his letters and a documentary film.

Works & Further Reading Read Hide

Notable Works

Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast — A body of some sixty-five published letters of spiritual counsel preserved and circulated by his disciples, treating watchfulness, the Jesus Prayer, devotion to the Mother of God, the temptations of Great Lent, and divine love.