Philokalia

Philokalia, (Greek: “Love of the Good, the Beautiful”), prose anthology of Greek Christian monastic texts that was part of a movement for spiritual renewal in Eastern monasticism and Orthodox devotional life in general. Compiled by the Greek monk Nikodimos and by Makarios, the bishop of Corinth, the Philokalia was first published in Venice in 1782 and gathered the unpublished writings of all major Hesychasts (hermits) of the Christian East, from Evagrius Ponticus to Gregory Palamas.

The Philokalia is concerned with “inner asceticism,” not merely outward obedience to one’s superior or the practice of physical austerities. Inner asceticism means, above all, daily recollection of death and judgment, together with perpetual remembrance of God as omnipresent and omnipotent, and ceaseless prayer. It is through this compilation that the tradition of the “prayer of the mind,” or Jesus prayer, uttered in a particular bodily position with a special way of breathing, became better known and gained new followers among Orthodox as well as Western Christians.

The Philokalia had great success in the Slavic countries, especially Russia, and a Church Slavonic version appeared in 1793 in St. Petersburg under the title of Dobrotoliubie. It was translated by the starets (spiritual leader) Paissy Velitchkovsky, who introduced a neo-Hesychast spiritual renewal into Russian and Moldavian monasticism. Whereas in Greece the Philokalia apparently had little influence outside certain schools of monasticism (although attempts were made to reach a wider public with new editions in 1867 and 1957), the Church Slavonic version became, through the influence of the startsy, one of the favourite spiritual books of all classes of Russian laity during the 19th century. In 1877 Theophan Zatvornik (Theophane the Recluse), the former bishop of Tambov, compiled a Russian version in five volumes.