Saint Symeon the New Theologian - Byzantine monk and mystic, termed the New Theologian to mark his difference from two key figures in Greek Christian esteem, St. John the Evangelist and the 4th-century theologian St. Gregory of Nazianzus. Symeon the New Theologian’s sermons were preached to his monks at St. Mamas. Its central theme is the conviction that, by applying the classical methods of mental prayer, one experiences a contemplative “vision of light,” a symbolic term denoting the intuitional illumination that the mystic realizes in his encounter with the Divine Unknown. Symeon emphasized that such experience is attainable by all who earnestly immerse themselves in the life of prayer and is essential to interpreting sacred Scriptures.