Elder Joseph the Hesychast (Francis Kottis) was a monk and elder on Mount Athos. He reposed in 1959, and he has wide acclaim for being the spiritual father or grandfather of Elders Ephrem of Philotheou, Joseph of Vatopedi, Charalampus of Dionysiou and others, who are directly credited for revitalising six of the twenty monasteries on Mount Athos.

Francis Kottis was born in the island of Paros to George and Maria on February 12, 1897 (in other sources: in 1898). In his teens, he went to work in Piraeus. At twenty-three he began to read the lives of the Fathers, a spiritual turning point for him. These lives, particularly those of the strict ascetics, and a dream he had, gave him the desire to enter into monastocism. He responded to this desire by fasting and praying in the nearby countryside, which was uninhabited, and then going to Mount Athos.