Sœur Noëlle Devilliers

This article takes the form of a personal testimony written by Sister Noëlle Devilliers, a Catholic hermit, about her spiritual relationship with Father André Scrima, a Romanian Orthodox monk whom she met in Lebanon beginning in 1959. The author traces twelve years of spiritual direction during which Scrima transmitted to her the hesychast tradition, notably the practice of the Jesus Prayer and the patristic reading of the Gospel, according to a lineage tracing back to the starets Paissy. The article highlights the figure of Scrima as a mediator between the Christian East and West, a forerunner of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. Its contribution lies in the concrete illustration of the charismatic transmission of Philocalic spirituality across confessional boundaries, and in the way this encounter shaped a Catholic eremitic vocation nourished by the Orthodox tradition.