Editing Hesychasm (section)

====Solitary ascetic life====
Christian monasticism started with the legalisation of Christianity in the 4th century.{{sfnp|Payne|2006|p=132}} The term ''hesychast'' is used sparingly in Christian [[ascetical]] writings emanating from [[Egypt]] from the 4th century on, although the writings of Evagrius and the ''Sayings of the Desert Fathers'' do attest to it. In Egypt, the terms more often used are ''anchoretism'' (Gr. {{lang|grc|ἀναχώρησις}}, "withdrawal, retreat"), and ''[[anchorite]]'' (Gr. {{lang|grc|ἀναχωρητής}}, "one who withdraws or retreats, i.e. a hermit").

The term ''hesychast'' was used in the 6th century in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] in the ''Lives'' of [[Cyril of Scythopolis]].{{sfnp|Stearn|2020|pp=269–324}} Many of the hesychasts Cyril describes were his own contemporaries; several of the saints about whom Cyril was writing, especially Euthymios and Savas, were in fact from [[Cappadocia]]. The laws ''(novellae)'' of the emperor [[Justinian I]] (r. 527–565) treat ''hesychast'' and ''anchorite'' as synonyms, making them interchangeable terms.