The Philokalia Is Published

In 1782 a volume in Greek was printed at Venice by Antonio Bortoli under the title Philokalia of the Holy Neptic Fathers (Philokalia (1782), Onassis Library copy, catalogue record). The preface explains the word: books are called neptic that treat of attention and watchfulness (nepsis) (Philokalia (1782), preface, p. γ΄). The title says that the book was gathered from the holy and God-bearing fathers and that through the moral philosophy of practice and contemplation set out in it the mind is purified, illumined and perfected (Philokalia (1782), title page (as reprinted, Athens 1893)).

An account from the time of how it was made is a letter of Paisius Velichkovsky, who governed the monasteries of Neamț and Secu in Moldavia (Life and Writings of Paisius Velichkovsky (1847), Life, title and sections 66–68). It was written while the book was still at the press (Life and Writings of Paisius Velichkovsky (1847), letter to Archimandrite Theodosius, para. beginning ‘Святыня же ваша’). He says that Macarius of Corinth, formerly metropolitan of Corinth, had loved from his youth the books of the fathers that teach watchfulness, attention, stillness and the prayer performed by the mind in the heart (Life and Writings of Paisius Velichkovsky (1847), letter to Archimandrite Theodosius, para. beginning ‘Святыня же ваша’). In the letter’s account Macarius searched the libraries of the great monasteries of Mount Athos; at Vatopedi he found a collection on the union of the mind with God, gathered in earlier times; he had the texts copied, checked the copies himself and set a life of each author before his writings; and from Smyrna he sent thirty-six such books to Venice to be printed, with money given as alms (Life and Writings of Paisius Velichkovsky (1847), letter to Archimandrite Theodosius, para. beginning ‘Святыня же ваша’).

The preface starts from what it calls God’s purpose from eternity, to make human beings divine (Philokalia (1782), preface, p. α΄). The grace given in baptism, it says, has been buried under the passions, and the Spirit taught the fathers a way to find it again: to pray without ceasing to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not with mind and lips alone but with the whole mind turned inward, calling on the Lord’s name in the depth of the heart and asking his mercy (Philokalia (1782), preface, p. β΄). Books that teach this, it says, had all but disappeared through age and rarity and had never been printed, and what remained was moth-eaten (Philokalia (1782), preface, p. γ΄). It names John Mavrogordatos as the benefactor who paid for the printing (Philokalia (1782), preface, p. δ΄). To the objection that such things should not be laid before everyone, it answers that Scripture commands all the faithful to pray without ceasing, and it invites laypeople and monks together (Philokalia (1782), preface, p. ε΄).

Paisius’s letter speaks only of Macarius (Life and Writings of Paisius Velichkovsky (1847), letter to Archimandrite Theodosius, para. beginning ‘Святыня же ваша’). The publisher of the Athens reprint of 1893 wrote that Nicodemus the Hagiorite, a monk of Athos, had contributed much to the book when he brought it out together with Macarius (Philokalia (1782), publisher’s dedication of the Athens reprint, 1893), and the library record names both men as its authors (Philokalia (1782), Onassis Library copy, catalogue record).

Paisius had for years been correcting old Slavonic versions of these writers against Greek manuscripts and translating others afresh (Life and Writings of Paisius Velichkovsky (1847), letter to Archimandrite Theodosius, para. beginning ‘Начах дело мое’). A Slavonic volume, Dobrotolubiye, was printed at Moscow in May 1793 with the blessing of the Holy Synod (Dobrotolubiye (Moscow, 1793), title leaf, recto and verso). Its title leaf names no translator; the Russian editors who published Paisius’s Life and letters in 1847 say that the translation was his and that it was compared with the Greek before it was printed (Life and Writings of Paisius Velichkovsky (1847), editors’ preface (1847)). For the earlier dispute over this way of prayer see Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Councils.