The starets Basil of Poiana-Marului

This article presents two texts by the starets Basil of Poiana Marului (1692-1767), a central figure of the Philokalic renewal in Moldavia in the eighteenth century, translated into French for the first time by Father Romul Joanta. The approach is that of an annotated translation, accompanied by a brief biographical note. The two excerpts — one devoted to the distinction between exterior prayer and interior prayer, the other to fasting — show that Basil does not merely transmit the hesychast tradition, but adapts it to new conditions. He criticizes ritualism, asceticism as merit, and exclusive dependence on the starets, while affirming that the prayer of the heart is accessible to laypeople, cenobites, and those who have no spiritual guide. The contribution of these texts is twofold: they illuminate the original thought of an author whose life remains poorly known and attest to his decisive role in the formation of Paisius Velichkovsky.