Although these works were widely known before their initial publication in the Greek language in 1782, they have since been published in this collection in many languages, including a seven-volume translation into Russian by St. Theophan the Recluse in the nineteenth century. Other than the Bible, and a handful of writings by early Christian Fathers, the Philokalia is by far the most influential and widely admired example of Eastern Orthodox piety in print today. It is featured prominently in another much shorter well-known book called The Way of a Pilgrim, in which a Russian traveler learns to pray from various people he meets on his travels and by reading the Philokalia.
The Philocalia is a collection of extracts from the works of Origen, assembled by St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen.
of the Philocalia commence with a short preface stating that it was compiled by Basil and Gregory, and sent by the latter to Theodore, Bishop of Tyana, together with a letter which then follows.
Two considerable quotations from the Philocalia are found in the Munich Catena on the Epistle to the Romans, published by Cramer at Oxford in 1844.
Eager to learn, he went to Constantinople and spent four or five years there and at Athens, where he had Gregory Nazianzus for a fellow student and became friends with the future emperor Julian.
Both men were deeply influenced by Origen, and compiled the well known anthology of his writings, known as Philocalia[?].
It was at Athens that he seriously began to think of religion, and resolved to seek out the most famous hermit[?] saints in Syria and Arabia, in order to learn from them how to attain enthusiastic piety and how to keep his body under submission by maceration and other ascetic devices.
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