Philokalia

The *Philokalia* (from Greek words meaning "love of beauty") is an anthology of writings from the 4th to the 15th centuries, authored by spiritual teachers within the Eastern Orthodox Church's mystical hesychast tradition. These works were originally composed to guide monks in the contemplative life. The collection was assembled in the 1700s by the monks Nicodemus the Hagiorite and Macarius of Corinth, who drew on five manuscripts from the 12th through 15th centuries held at the Vatopedi monastery on Mount Athos.

Although individual texts in the collection were already known in Greek Orthodox monastic circles, their inclusion in the *Philokalia* dramatically expanded their audience through translation. The first translation, into Church Slavonic by Paisius Velichkovsky, appeared in 1793 as *Dobrotolublye*. Russian translations followed: one by Ignatius Bryanchaninov in 1857, and a five-volume version by Theophan the Recluse in 1877. Subsequent translations have been made into Romanian, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Finnish, and Arabic. The publishers of the current English edition assert that, aside from the Bible, no book has had a greater impact on the recent history of the Orthodox Church.

The title *Philokalia* (or *Philocalia*) also refers to an earlier anthology of Origen's writings compiled by Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus. Other collections on monastic spirituality have used the same name over time.

The first Greek edition was printed in Venice in 1782; a second Greek edition came out in Athens in 1893. All original texts were in Greek, though two were initially written in Latin and later translated into Greek during the Byzantine era. Velichkovsky's Church Slavonic translation, which included only selected portions, was the version carried by the pilgrim in *The Way of a Pilgrim*. That book, about a Russian seeker of advice on interior prayer, helped popularize the *Philokalia* in Russia. Velichkovsky's translation was the first to reach a broad lay audience, aided by the popularity of *The Way of a Pilgrim* and the influence of the Optina Elders. Velichkovsky initially hesitated to release his translation outside Optina Monastery, fearing that people in the world lacked the supervision of spiritual elders and the support of monastic liturgy. He was eventually persuaded by the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg to publish it in 1793. Bryanchaninov shared these concerns, warning that practicing the Jesus Prayer without guidance could lead to spiritual delusion and pride, even among monks. This caution contrasted with the view of the original compiler Nicodemus, who believed the Jesus Prayer could benefit anyone, monastic or lay. All agreed that constant inner prayer should be practiced under a spiritual teacher.

The first partial English and French translations appeared in the 1950s, an indirect result of the Bolshevik revolution driving Russian intellectuals into Western Europe. T. S. Eliot convinced his fellow directors at Faber and Faber to publish a partial English translation from Theophan's Russian version, which proved surprisingly successful in 1951. A more complete English translation from the original Greek began in 1979, a collaboration between G. E. H. Palmer, Kallistos Ware, and Philip Sherrard. Four of five volumes were released between 1979 and 1995; the fifth volume was published in 2023, shortly after Ware's death. In 1946, the first installment of a ten-volume Romanian translation by Father Dumitru Stăniloae appeared. Stăniloae added extensive original footnotes and expanded coverage of several Church Fathers, resulting in a 4,650-page work. Writings by Trappist monk Thomas Merton on hesychasm, along with J. D. Salinger's *Franny and Zooey* (which featured *The Way of a Pilgrim*), also helped spread the *Philokalia*'s popularity.

The full title is *The Philokalia of the Niptic Fathers*, or more fully, *The Philokalia of the Neptic Saints gathered from our Holy Theophoric Father, through which, by means of the philosophy of ascetic practice and contemplation, the intellect is purified, illumined, and made perfect*. "Niptic" comes from the Greek *nipsis* (or *nepsis*), meaning "watchfulness," a term for contemplative prayer that involves close attention to one's thoughts, intentions, and emotions.