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Mount Athos 1000 years miracles.

Philokalia—which translates to “love of the beautiful” or “the love of what is good.Many believe that the Philokalia is a book written by Saint Nicodemus the Athonite. In fact, this book—as that understand of the book—does not actually exist.

In reality, the Philokalia is an anthology, a collection of texts by saints belonging to the Hesychast tradition, which, in its original edition, included thirty-six authors who lived between the 4th and 15th centuries. The ones who made up this first edition—also called, in Greek, the Philokalia—were the saints Makarios Notaras, the Bishop of Corinth (1731-1805) who chose the materials and Nikodimos the Athonite (1749-1809) who checked them and made the appropriate enhancements.

The material chosen by Saint Makarios Notaras was chosen from the library of the Vatopedi monastery—specifically from the codices 472 (12th century), 605 (13th century), 476 (14th century), 628 (14th century) and 629 (15th century). In 1777, he gave the material to Saint Nicodemos when he met with him at Karyes.

Finally, the first edition appeared in 1782, in Venice, in one very large volume entitled, “Φιλοκαλία τῶν Ἱερῶν Νηπτικῶν συνερανισθεῖσα παρὰ τῶν Ἁγίων καὶ Θεοφόρων Πατέρων ἡμῶν ἐν ᾗ διὰ τῆς κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν καὶ θεωρίαν ἠθικῆς φιλοσοφίας ὁ νοῦς καθαίρεται, φωτίζεται καὶ τελειοῦται.” From this title, only the first word in history remained: “Philokalia”—which translates to “love of the beautiful” or “the love of what is good.”