**PHILOKALIA** (Φιλοκαλία). — I. Name designating a collection of fragments, largely scriptural, by Origen, compiled by St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzus ca. 358. The personalities of the compilers are evident in the selection of passages, which are sometimes extracts from works lost by the great Doctor (ed. Robinson, Cambridge 1893).
2. The term F. also designates a spiritual anthology compiled by the polygraph Nicodemus the Hagiorite.
The title given by the author, Φιλοκαλία τόνος ἐγώ, μου γίνεται, indicates the character of the work, a collection of writings by holy, wise, and prudent men, i.e., about 35 authors, arranged in a supposed chronological order, among whom are some of 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, Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, etc. The collection is noteworthy not only for the rarity of its edition but also because it contains some works, such as those of Peter of Damascus and Philotheus, which did not appear in PG because a fire destroyed the matrices of vol. 162, which was to have included them. The edition of the F. was published in Venice in 1782. Another edition was published in Athens in 1893.
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