FILOCALIA (Φιλοκαλία). — 1. Name designating a collection of fragments, largely scriptural, by Origen, compiled by St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzus around 358. The personality of the compilers is evident in their selection of the passages, which are at times extracted from lost works of the great Doctor (ed. Robinson, Cambridge 1893).
2. F. is also the name given to an ascetic anthology compiled by the polymath Nicodemus the Hagiorite.
The title given by the author, Φιλοκαλία τῶν ἱερῶν ὑππέλων, indicates the character of the work: a collection of writings by the “holy wise and prudent,” that is, approximately 35 authors, arranged in a purported chronological order. Among them are the most celebrated figures of Eastern asceticism and mysticism, such as the great Anthony, Evagrius, Cassian, Nilus, Diadochus of Photice, Maximus the Confessor, John Damascene, Simeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, etc. The collection is interesting not only because of the rarity of the edition, but also because it contains certain works, such as those of Peter of Damascus and Philemon, which did not appear in PG because a fire destroyed the type for vol. 152, which was to have housed them. The editio princeps of F. was produced in Venice in 1782. Another was produced in Athens in 1893.