Rodi Antoniadou

This article constitutes the conclusion of a study devoted to the theme of the heart in the *Philokalia*, a foundational collection of Orthodox hesychast spirituality. Adopting a theological and spiritual synthesis approach, the author examines the ultimate stages of the interior life: the opening of the heart as a breaking of the barrier between time and eternity, divine illumination, and then the mystical eros leading to deification. The central idea is that the heart constitutes the par excellence place of encounter between God and man, where the purified *nous* receives the uncreated light and where the transformation of the human being is accomplished. On the theological level, the article highlights the coherence of Philokalic anthropology by articulating the notions of *penthos*, purification, illumination and theosis around the heart as the dynamic center and criterion of the spiritual state of the person.

This article is the continuation of a documented study devoted to the theme of the heart in the Greek Philokalia. Drawing on a broad corpus of patristic texts — Maximus the Confessor, Gregory Palamas, Symeon the New Theologian, Peter of Damascus, and others — the author examines the ascetic and mystical dimension of the interior life according to the hesychast tradition. The central idea is that the "discovery" of the heart passes through an ordered process: metanoia as a fundamental turning, contrition, the progressive purification of the three powers of the soul — logistikon, thymikon, epithymikon — through the keeping of the commandments and the Prayer of the Name, and finally the illumination of the heart by the uncreated light. The theological contribution of the article lies in the rigorous distinction between purification of the nous and purification of the heart, and in the precise articulation between tripartite anthropology, ascetic praxis, and the theology of divine grace.

This article constitutes the first study in a series devoted to the theme of the heart in the Philokalia, considered within the framework of an Orthodox Eucharistic anthropology. Adopting a synthetic and systematic approach, Rodi Antoniadou explores the patristic conception of the heart drawing from Philokalic texts, relying in particular on Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, Saint Gregory Palamas and Saint Diadochos of Photike. The central idea is that the heart, far from designating the mere fleshly organ, constitutes a triple metaphysical center — natural, contrary to nature and supernatural — where the encounter between man and God takes place. The theological contribution of the article lies in highlighting the heart as the privileged locus of divine revelation and participation in the uncreated energies, thereby articulating anthropology, hesychasm and the theology of energies within a coherent and well-documented perspective.