The spirit of the "Philokalia"

This article constitutes the general introduction to the first complete French edition of the *Philokalia*, an anthology of Byzantine monastic texts compiled in 1782 by Makarios of Corinth and Nikodimos the Hagiorite. Written by Jacques Touraille, the translator of the work, the text adopts both a historical and theological approach. It traces the conditions under which the *Philokalia* emerged and spread, from the Egyptian hermitages of the fourth century to Mount Athos, by way of its Slavic and Romanian extensions. The article then sets out the fundamental concepts of the hesychast tradition — *hesychia*, *nepsis*, *nous*, the prayer of the heart, uncreated light — clarifying their interpretive stakes. Its principal contribution is to demonstrate the internal coherence of this spiritual tradition across a millennium, while examining its reception and its relevance in the modern Western world.