Împăratul isihast și moștenirea sa românească
The Hesychast Emperor and His Romanian Legacy

Summary/Abstract: Maria Anastasiu’s article explores the life of John VI Kantakouzenos, the last great Byzantine emperor and a Hesychast monk, whose legacy profoundly shaped both Orthodox Christianity and Romanian history. Renowned as a polymath, historian, and theologian, he was the decisive political supporter of St. Gregory Palamas, helping secure the triumph of Hesychasm over both rationalist challenges and political opposition. With regard to Romanian history, the article emphasizes the genuine genealogical connection between the Kantakouzenos family—ancestors of Constantin Brâncoveanu—and the Byzantine imperial dynasty. Spiritually, his influence was transmitted through Hesychast patriarchs who organized the first metropolitan sees in Wallachia, thereby consolidating a monastic tradition that was Hesychast from its very beginnings. Through the manuscript Codex Parisinus graecus 1242, Kantakouzenos articulated a new political theology, transferring symbolic authority from the declining empire to the Church and thereby preparing the spiritual survival of Christians beyond the collapse of Byzantium’s political institutions.

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