Hesychasts, a religious sect of the 14th century belonging to the Greek Church; consisted chiefly of a community of monks who dwelt at Mount Athos; they professed a kind of Quietism (q. v.), and were noted for their practice of sitting for hours daily with their eyes fixed upon the navel (regarding the stomach as the seat of the soul); in this position they professed to see a divine light beaming out upon them, and to enjoy therein a specially intimate communion with God. See Athos, Mount.