Philokalia

UPDATE: The full book is now on Amazon - a Kindle edition:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Union-God-Life-Theoria-KATAFYGIOTIS-ebook/dp/B084NX1RC5/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=christos+konstas&qid=1581428268&sr=8-1
&
https://www.amazon.com/Union-God-Life-Theoria-KATAFYGIOTIS-ebook/dp/B084NX1RC5/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=christos+konstas+philokalia&qid=1581428487&sr=8-1

The pinnacle of the Philokalia:
On the Union with God, and the Life of Theoria by Kalistos Katafygiotis (possibly Kalistos Angelikoudis?)

This is to present and discuss a text found in the fabled volume 5 of the Philokalia* titled: On the Union with God, and the Life of Theoria [sometimes translated as: contemplative life].
It’s a text that to my knowledge had not been translated into English until now*.
For this present translation I used the Greek text from volume 2 of the 1893 text of the 2nd Greek edition of the Philokalia. I also consulted sometimes the modern Greek text from volume 5 of the 1st edition of the modern Greek edition of the Philokalia (1985-1989.)
The current stage of the translation is still a rough draft form.

It's attributed to an unknown 14th century monk named Kalistos Katafygiotis.
It's not the last text of the Philokalia but it's probably the most "advanced" and as it is placed at the end of the texts making up the collection it seems that the Philokalia's compilers intended it to be the apex of their collection. All texts that follow it can be regarded as recapping the whole work, as the conclusion and the appendices of the collection. The true final text of the Philokalia, I argue, is the "On the Union with God, and the Life of Theoria."
Its Greek title is "Περί της ενώσεως με το Θεό και του θεωρητικου βίου" - On the Union with God, and the theoretical life (meaning the Life of Theoria)
It was written in the 14th century, probably sometime between 1350 and 1397, in the Macedonia (Northern Greece,) in Greek, by an unknown monk referred as: Kalistos Katafygiotis. Some think that he was a little-known monk who lived a life of monastic retreat to a monastery called "Katafyfiotissa" (meaning in Greek, 'shelter', or 'retreat'.)
Others believe that "Katafygiotis" (meaning in Greek "one living in a retreat) it's a nickname or an eponym of Callistus II, briefly Patriarch of Constantinople in 1397.

The text is written in the popular in antiquity form of a collection of short texts. Some of these texts are very short, 2-3 lines only, others longer than a page.
They were meant to be used for instruction and in many ways are more like prompts than fully developed arguments.
Sometimes such texts (called “kephalaia” – chapters or headings) would be the authors own notes, or something equivalent to today’s “bullet-points,” aiming to assist the actual teaching. Sometimes they are notes taken by disciples or observers during the teaching. Sometimes they were something equivalent to today’s “hand-outs.” Texts that the disciples were supposed to take with them and read them and contemplate them and study them during a course of days or weeks and then go back to the teacher for feedback and advice.
In a case like this one the texts are very much experiential advice given to people striving to experience “union with God” and “the life of Theoria.” So they are not formed or structured in an academic way. The author cares little about scholarship, or formal Aristotelian structure. There is a strong autobiographical element there too: Some of the texts are just personal prayers, written down or personal observations during states of Theoria. “The spiritual things are spiritually discerned” for writters like Kalistos Katafygiotis. So intellectual approval or rational arguments were not in their mind unless they served the main purpose: to edify towards union with God and the life of Theoria.”

The text can be approached from a multiple of angles but here the most relevant are:
1. The original author's intent behind the text for the original recipients.
2. The intent of the compilers of the Philokalia both in choosing to include this text int their collection and their choice to place it towards the end of their collection.

1. It seems that the author of the text meant it both as a personal record of perceptions and as an edifying text for disciples or correspondents.
The way such text were approached included the ancient practice of "Melete" ("meditare" in Latin) which was essentialy a form of ancient way of mediation, incorporating both meditation (as we understand today the word) and study.
For "melete" the procedure is to take (or be given as a disciple) a short text like the kephalaia of "On the Union with God, and the Life of Theoria" with the task to read it aloud several times a day, for several days or as long as instructed or needed. At the same time the reader was to apply or put into practice any practical task or advice the text offered. All that, until the purpose of the text "sunk into" the reader's mind and until it was finally internalized. Once this was accomplished or at least approached, the teacher would give to the disciple another text (the next of the treatise, more likely than not) and the procedure of "melete" would be repeated.
2. The compilers of the Philokalia probably had in mind a more modern approach. Like study the texts and use them as reference material. Also, by putting towards the end of the Philokalia this text they showed their intent to "wrap" the whole Philokalia "up" by a text of sublime matters that only a careful reader of the whole Philokalia might fully appreciate.

What follows in the uploaded document is the treatise plus some clarifying notes, a glossary and an example study guide.

Note:
• The first 12 text (out of 92) appeared in English translation at: https://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/union_with_god_kallistos_katafytiotis_angelikoudis.html?fbclid=IwAR1wbSnEFW6g40N8bYzMDRUH0It59yanUozJUyC5i2-hkV-aAPB5MlQecqw --- A note explains: “This American English version is based on Antonios G. Galitis's (+) modern Greek translation, published by Perivoli Tis Panagias publishers, Thessaloniki, Greece, 4th edition, 1998. It will be incomplete while I am in the process of translation. I post each segment as I finish it, subject to revision. The complete work consists of 92 numbered chapters.”

Contemporary technology has promised us lives that are more connected, more organized, and more efficient. That promise has not been realized so far; while contemporary technology has done much that is good, it has also lead to a society that is more distracted and divided than ever. These issues are not new, but are today’s reflections of the ancient problem of our fallen human condition. At this retreat, we will discuss the roots of today’s problems in our broken internal lives. Then, we will outline the approach of Orthodox Christian spirituality to healing our internal lives and its implication for our patterns of behavior in the digital world.

This is the English text, unreleased in Europe or the US, given by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware to be included in the Malayalam edition of the Philokalia published in India in 2006. This edition contains a complete, but presumably unpolished, translation of Vol. 5, hitherto unknown in English. You can read about the release of the Malayalam Philokalia, which was attended by then-Metropolitan, now-Patriarch Kiril, in Kottayam, here: https://mospat.ru/archive/en/2006/12/34240/

Trad. din limba greacă de Ierom. Agapie Corbu, Ed. Sf. Nectarie, Arad, 2009.

  Scrierea filocalică a cărei tâlcuire o prezentăm în al patrulea volum
din seria de Tâlcuiri la Filocalie cuprinde experienţa rugăciunii Părinţilor pustiei, transpusă în 153 de capete despre rugăciune. Tâlcuirea de faţă este o extinsă şi detaliată explicare a acestora, gândită de autorul ei ca o introducere extinsă la Capetele însele, pe care le premerge.
  Scopul pentru care au fost alcătuite Capetele Sfântului Nil e pur duhovnicesc şi practic. Tot ceea ce autorul a dobândit cu privegheri de toată noaptea, cu posturi, cu nevoinţă, de multe ori mai presus de om, cu lacrimi fierbinţi de străpungere, cu preaadâncă tânguire duhovnicească a inimii, cu fierbinte căutare a cerului, cu suspine negrăite, poate cu căderi şi nereuşite la început, dar şi cu adâncă şi cutremurătoare şi pe măsură pocăinţă apoi, cu sfinte citiri şi studiu duhovnicesc, cu contemplaţii şi cu lepădarea de toate pentru a moşteni totul, astfel încât „viaţa cea nouă“ şi
„făptura cea nouă“ în Hristos să devină realitate în sufletul pustnicului
rugător, tot ceea ce a fost astfel câştigat a fost şi aşezat în „capete“.

Trad. rom. şi cuvânt introductiv de Ierom. Agapie Corbu, Ed. Sf. Nectarie, Arad, 2017.

O alegere ca aceea a Capetelor despre dragoste, făcută de Părintele Emilianos Simonopetritul pentru a le tâlcui fiilor și fiicelor sale duhovnicești, nu poate fi pusă pe seama întâmplării, mai ales că textele filocalice care așteptau o explicare nu-i lipseau. Această scriere a Sfântului Maxim Mărturisitorul reprezintă, după părerea erudiților, cea mai completă scriere a sa despre viața duhovnicească, fiind totodată și cea mai cunoscută printre nespecialiști, şi că tematica ei duhovnicească bogată a făcut-o extrem de căutată, astfel încât Sfântul Nicodim Aghioritul a ținut să o includă în Filocalia sa, editată în anul 1782.
  Într-un moment istoric al Bisericii, când „lipseşte cel cuvios şi s-au împuţinat adevărurile de la fiii oamenilor“, cum este cel de azi, moment în care asistăm la o sporire a aşteptărilor faţă de posibilităţile cazone ale „întăririi disciplinei“, a regulamentelor sau a statutelor şi reformelor administrative, de a „înviora“ viaţa duhovnicească în mănăstiri şi nu numai, comentariul Părintelui Emilianos vine, providenţial, să precizeze raportul just dintre faptele noastre de evlavie şi plinătatea legăturii în Duhul Sfânt cu Dumnezeu.

This is an altered and cleaned-up version of the text supplied by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware for the Malayalam-English Philokalia published in Kerala, India, in 2006. Although Vol. 5 has yet to appear in Europe or the US, a version of the English translation has been available in India since 2006. Below you will find the lengthy 'Directions to Hesychasts,' Syntagma, or Methodos by Kallistos and Ignatios, which makes up a very large part of Volume 5. The original scan can be found here: https://www.academia.edu/40333540/Philokalia_Vol._5_Kallistos_and_Ignatios_On_the_Life_of_Stillness_English_. You can read about the release of the English-Malayalam Philokalia, at a ceremony attended by then-Metroplitan, now-Patriarch Kiril, here: https://mospat.ru/archive/en/2006/12/34240/

Trad. rom. şi cuvânt introductiv de Ierom. Agapie Corbu, Ed. Sf. Nectarie, Arad, 2018.

  Înălțimile rugăciunii despre care scrie Avva Evagrie sunt accesibile, desigur, „celor tari“, dar iată că Gheronda Emilianos le oferă, fără ezitare, „celor slabi“, începătorilor şi novicilor, tinerelor şi tinerilor veniți sub povățuirea sa. Am fi, poate, tentați să ne mirăm de îndrăzneala Starețului, dacă nu chiar ispitiți de gândul unei lipse de „discernământ“ şi de adecvare a discursului la măsurile auditoriului. Dar oare Iisus nu le spunea ucenicilor, unii foarte tineri, încă de la început: „Fiți voi desăvârșiți, precum Tatăl vostru cel ceresc desăvârșit este!“ (Mt. 5, 48)?

The spiritual tradition of hesychasm is arguably one of the most distinguishable features of Athonite monasticism. This chapter explores hesychasm’s deep intertwining with Mount Athos, by following its historical unfolding from its inception in the 14th century to its instrumental role in the 20th century Athonite renewal.

Our recent research in the mss and old printed books of the Library of the monastery of Annunciation at the place Leukada of Ikaria island, brought to light some new evidence for the early history of this monastery, related to the kollyvadic origins of its founders saints Nephon and Makarios Notaras.
 In this paper at first we present some testimonies  preserved in the Κώδιξ (i.e. the ms with historical information and archival material) of the monastery about the first monks who followed Nephon or travelled there during the first decades after its foundation. Moreover, in two mss we found an old narration about the kollyvadic controversy in mount Athos, which has close relation to Athanasios' Parios Δήλωσις. Finally, special interest present the old printed books of two of the most important kollyvadic publications, Philokalia (1782) and Pedalion (Τhe Rudder) which belonged to hieromonk Agathon from Chios, the successor of Nephon at the hegumenate of the monastery. Philokalia is divided in two parts, as it was planned to be published by its two editors, Sts Makarios Notaras and Nikodemos Hagiorite. Great interest presents the copy of the first publication of the canonical collection of Pedalion (1800). In one of its first pages we found an unknown text written by Athanasios Parios  which he addresses to the readers of the book, condemning the additions made in special chapters of the book by hieromonk Theodoretos. Moreover, in pp. 97-99 there was added a handwritten Certification of the content of the book which is dated to 1802s and is assigned to the ex-patriarch of Constantinople Neophytos VII. 


The article presents Evagrius as a spiritual father who guides his monks
towards the contemplation of the divine light. The path to this peak follows a certain route and has several stages. The author analyzes the Evagrian texts related to this topic contextually and terminologically, organizing them according to the stages of spiritual ascent. Thus, after affirming the biblical substrate of Evagrian theology, the author shows that even at the stage of the praktikē the ascetic is imparted with the divine light to a certain degree. The fundamental distinction between the created light of the mind and the uncreated divine light is highlighted, and the connections between ascetic anthropology and the light of the Holy Trinity and between contemplation and deification are emphasized. Finally, it is demonstrated that the experience of the light described by Evagrius has a profound Christological and ecclesiastical character, despite some interpretations that see Evagrius as an author under the sway of non-Christian influences. These teachings on the divine light have been retrieved, developed, and detailed throughout history by all the hesychast fathers who used Evagrius’ writings, a fact showing the importance of the topic for the whole Christian spirituality.

Trad. rom. de Ierom. Agapie Corbu, Ed. Sf. Nectarie, Arad, 2014.

  Volumul de faţă constituie o continuare şi, într-un fel, o completare a tâlcuirilor pe care Gheronda Emilianos le-a făcut Cuvintelor ascetice ale lui Avva Isaia. Catehezele asupra Sfântului Isihie au fost ţinute între anii 1985-1986, la Mănăstirea Simonos Petras şi la metocul ei din Ormylia.
  Scopul este acelaşi, cuvântul Părintelui urmărind să îndemne sufletele către luptele cele duhovniceşti, să le călăuzească şi să le împărtăşească cugetul Sfinţilor Părinţi, duhul monahal, atât în viaţa obştească a frăţiei, cât şi în viaţa personală a monahilor, pentru a-i pregăti pentru întâlnirea
mistică cu Domnul Care vine. Am putea spune că, în timp ce textul lui Avva Isaia privea latura practică a vieţii, în toată întinderea ei, şi mai cu seamă legăturile sociale ale monahilor în sânul unei chinovii, Avva Isihie, în cele 203 de capete ale sale, scrie aproape exclusiv pe tema trezviei.
  Aceste capete reflectă, precum feţele unui diamant, toate laturile acestei lucrări filocalice fundamentale, care acoperă întreaga luptă duhovnicească a monahului care-L caută pe Hristos prin rugăciune.

"E demnă de remarcat congenialitatea între mişcarea patristică din mediile teologice şi spiritualitatea despre care dădea mărturie Gheron Iosif. În viaţa lui Gheron Iosif va urma perioada când în jurul lui se va strânge o veritabilă obşte de ucenici, care vor duce mai departe moştenirea duhovnicească isihastă. De numele ucenicilor, dintre care să îi amintim doar pe Efrem Filotheitul şi pe Iosif Vatopedinul, se leagă atât perpetuarea spiritualităţii isihaste, cât şi o autentică restaurare a experienţei monahale în Muntele Athos, prin numeroşii ucenici care au ajuns stareţi la câteva dintre mănăstiri." Arhid. IOAN I. ICĂ jr.

This text concentrates on Metropolitan Kallistos’s way of translating the Philokalic tradition into language accessible to the Christians living in current Western world. Themes like the relationship to the spiritual guide, watchfulness (nepsis), stillness (hesychia), and invocation of the name of Jesus are interpreted in this light. It shows how Metropolitan Kallistos proposes to unite the life of work and of prayer, how to seek for Christ everywhere, and through that seeking and finding, making the secular sacred.

"Volumul de faţă cuprinde tâlcuirea lui Gheronda Emilianos, făcută în primăvara anului 1987, la capetele Cuviosului Teognost Despre făptuire, contemplaţie şi preoţie. Ea se adaugă firesc şi necesar la tâlcuirile Părintelui Emilianos deja editate, fiind întemeiată, în bună măsură, pe experienţa sa personală şi făcută cu scopul de a transmite învăţătura patristică fiilor săi duhovniceşti, monahii Sfintei Mănăstiri Simonos Petras şi monahiile Sfintei Mănăstiri Ormylia, dar şi pentru a-şi tăinui trăirile personale în spatele cuvintelor Părinţilor. În tâlcuirea sa, Gheronda Emilianos îl urmează pe Cuviosul Teognost, dar şi învăţătura Bisericii noastre despre preoţia generală, adăugând şi trăirile sale personale, prilejuite de întâlnirile sale tainice cu Sfântul Duh şi de împărtăşirea sa cu Trupul şi Sângele lui Hristos la slujirea aproape zilnică a Dumnezeieştii Liturghii. Gheronda se referă la făptuirea şi la contemplaţia cu care trebuie să se împodobească atât fiecare credincios, în calitatea sa de preot, cât mai cu seamă preotul, care are preoţia sacramentală." Arhim. Elisei Simonopetritul

Starting from the paulin text of 1 Cor. 12, 8, the author presents the patristic perpective on the relation between the discursive theology and the spiritual experience, which in the patristic literature is also called "knowledge - gnosis". The attention is focused on the works of the Saints Diadochos of Photiki, John Chrysostom and Evagrius Ponticus.

Legătura dintre Filocalie şi Scriptură este mult mai strânsă decât s-ar putea crede la o primă privire, ea este de fapt legătura dintre Scriptură şi trăirea ei concretă. Aceasta deoarece Filocalia, şi, în general, literatura duhovnicească (ascetică şi mistică), nu reprezintă decât un comentariu biblic izvorât din experienţa pnevmatică a trăirii şi a împlinirii cu efort a cuvântului lui Dumnezeu aşa cum este el conţinut în Biblie. Locul unic şi primordial al Bibliei în viaţa duhovnicească a făcut ca spiritualitatea ortodoxă să fie biblică. Fără asumarea totală, intelectuală şi în viaţă, a acestui adevăr nu pot fi înţelese afirmaţiile numeroase ale Părinţilor care vizează Scriptura ca pe cea dintâi carte a vieţii duhovniceşti.

Textul cuprinde un dialog incitant şi iniţiatic, purtat la Athos, la înmormântarea unui monah cu viaţă sfântă, constituie prilejul unui schimb savuros de idei, privind perspectiva filocalică asupra tinereţii, bătrâneţii şi morţii, în raport cu viziunea umanistă clasică greacă şi renascentistă.

This thesis examines the role which death plays in the development of a uniquely Christian identity in John Climacus’ seventh-century work, the Ladder of Divine Ascent and the Greek ascetic literature of the previous centuries. I argue that John Climacus deploys language of death, inherited from a range of Greek Christian literature, as the symbolic framework within which he describes the ascetic lifestyle as developing a Christian identity. This framework is expressed by thee ascetic practice of ‘memory of death’ and by practices of renunciation described as ‘death’ to oneself and others.  In order to understand Climacus’ unique achievement in regard to engagement with death it is
necessary first to situate the Ladder and its author within the literature of the Greek ascetic tradition, within which Climacus consciously wrote. In the Introduction I develop ways Climacus draws on and develops traditional material, while arguing that it must be treated and interpreted in its own right and not simply as his ‘sources.’ I then examine the vocabulary of death and the lines of thought opened up in the New Testament. Chapter One argues that the memory of death plays an important role in Athanasius’ Vita Antonii. Chapter Two surveys material from the fifth- and sixth-century Egyptian and Palestinian deserts in which memory and practice of death are deployed in a wider variety of ways and
are increasingly connected to ascetics’ fundamental understanding of self and salvation. Chapter Three examines the sixth-century Quaestiones et Responsiones of Barsanuphius and John of Gaza in which further elaboration of the same thematic is discernible. Chapter Four concludes this thesis with a sustained
reading of John Climacus’ Scala Paradisi in which the various thematics centering on memory and practice of death are synthesized into the existential framework and practical response, respectively.

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of ‘war’ as the human sin ‘par excellence’ and argue that its overcoming is a key motive in the theology of Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov, twentieth-century Russian Orthodox theologian and ascetic. Seldom addressed in the growing number of academic and/or spiritual studies dedicated to him, war appears as problematic already on the first page of his first book St Silouan the Athonite (1948). Defined as ‘fratricide’ and denied any legitimacy, war remains a commanding force behind the entire theology emerging on the pages of Archim. Sophrony’s books. In the 1920s, as a young Russian émigré in Paris, he discovers the oneness of humankind as a reaction to the tragedy of the First World War. In the 1940s, living as a hermit in a cave on the cliffs of Mt Athos in Greece, he cries out in prayer against the slaughter of the Second World War. In his last works, published posthumously in England, he laments his powerlessness against this greatest of evils. Structurally, Part One of the paper is an analysis of the ways in which Fr Sophrony uses the terms ‘war’ and ‘peace’. Having defined the key terms, I move, in Part Two, to his understanding of the workings of divine providence. Here my analysis is enriched by a comparison with Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958), a personal friend and colleague of Archim. Sophrony’s in Paris. The paper is built around large citations of texts, many of which are offered here for the first time in English translation. The conclusion contextualises the findings of the paper within the larger Orthodox tradition and indicates possible avenues for further research.

A presentation delivered at the 2014 Saint Sergius conference at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, investigating the links between Russian monastic Saint Sergius of Radonezh and the hesychast movement in the Byzantine Empire and Balkans. Later published in Orthodox Life Volume 67, Number 2, March - April 2016.

Essay published in Religions/Adyan, Journal of the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue, Issue 2, 2011.
The heights, depths and ascesis of prayer are approached through the writings of some of the greatest representatives of noetic prayer in the Orthodox Hesychast tradition.

This is the first Anacreontic poem by St Sophronius with the rest currently in translation as part of the FULL works of the saint.

The saints works have been stored and secured in the private library of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. It will be the first time these works are published in English and although the Greek was published hundreds of years ago, it is only available in rare collections not accessible by the public.

We endeavor to make the both the Greek and English available as part of our ministry in translations.

Capetele filocalice editate bilingv în acest volum provin de la nişte ucenici indirecţi şi îndepărtaţi ai Avvei Evagrie, fiind redactate în Palestina secolului al V-lea. Aflate astăzi doar într-un manuscris
grecesc atenian, descoperit în 1978, aceste Capete au fost intens folosite de Sfântul Maxim Mărturisitorul la redactarea faimoaselor sale Capete despre dragoste.
Traducerea, realizată acum pentru prima oară în româneşte, este însoţită de un amplu corpus de note şi comentarii, care lămuresc termeni şi idei din cuprinsul Capetelor şi evidenţiază legăturile textului cu marea tradiţie teologică şi filocalică răsăriteană, atestând felul în care gândirea şi scrierile pre-evagriene şi evagriene, de la care autorul nostru se revendică, au fost asimilate, reorganizate şi dezvoltate în cele mai diverse epoci şi contexte, până azi. Astfel structurată, cartea este şi o iniţiere în universul bogat şi peren al Filocaliei.

Trad. rom. de Ierom. Agapie Corbu, Ed. Sf. Nectarie, Arad, 2010.

În această tâlcuire a lui Avva Isaia, Părintele Emilianos a ales mai cu seamă pasajele în care Avva descrie buna-cuviinţă duhovnicească şi respectul din pustie, pentru a atinge subiectullegăturilor noastre obşteşti, totul cu o mare subţirime psihologică şi adâncime duhovnicească. De exemplu, acceptarea celuilalt şi convieţuirea paşnică, fie într-o frăţie
monahală, fie în familie sau în oricare altă obşte – este un criteriu esenţial al duhovniciei, fără de care nimeni nu poate înainta spre
Dumnezeu.

Este artigo apresenta os resultados da pesquisa acerca da presença de textos religiosos na narrativa literária. Para ser mais preciso, trata-se da investigação sobre a existência de citações ou referências indiretas da Philokalia nos Relatos de um Peregrino Russo. Viu-se que o autor dos Relatos, no intuito de fundamentar os seus argumentos acerca da necessidade da prática da Oração de Jesus, citou abundantemente diversos textos da Philokalia.