The Philokalia

The Philokalia (Gk. φιλοκαλία, "love of the beautiful") is a collection of texts written between the fourth and fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Eastern Orthodox hesychast tradition. They were originally written for the guidance and instruction of monks in 'the practise of the contemplative life. The collection was compiled in the eighteenth-century by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth.

Although these works were individually known in the monastic culture of Greek Orthodox Christianity before their inclusion in The Philokalia, their presence in this collection has resulted in a much wider readership due to its translation into several languages, including a seven-volume translation into Russian (Dobrotolyubie) by St. Theophan the Recluse in the nineteenth-century; Romanian, English, Finnish, modern Greek and French translations.

In the words of the publishers of the current English translation, 'The Philokalia has exercised an influence far greater than that of any book other than the Bible in the recent history of the Orthodox Church

Philocalia is also the name given to an anthology of the writings of Origen compiled by Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzus