Treasures of Romanian Christianity: Hesychast Tradition and Culture

by Serafim Joantă

Take a "journey to the place of the heart". This book is a living proof that "the Romanian Orthodox spirituality is an original synthesis between the open, joyous and luminous Latin spirit, and the mystic spirituality, the profundity of Orthodoxy" (Fr. D. Staniloae). Hesychasm is not a spiritual technique of the past, but it continues to nourish "the soul of a nation and the soul of a Church" (O. Clement) - today, Romania has the largest concentration of active monasteries in the world. The book includes a description of Christian life and monastic life through the millennia, as well as relations with Mount Athos and the Holy Land. Along with Wallachia and Transylvania, Moldavia was the heart of the Orthodox Church in the 18th century – the book presents details on the life and activity to St. Basil of Poiana Marului and St. Paisius Velichkovsky. Translations in Moldavian monasteries culminated with the publication of the original Romanian Philokalia in 1769 (first edition in a modern language), followed by the great Greek Philokalia in 1782 and the Slavonic Philokalia in 1793. This expanded edition culminates with the great Romanian spiritual fathers of the 20th and 21st Archimandrite Cleopa Ilie, Fr. Arsenie Boca, Fr. Arsenie Papacioc and others.

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 18, 2013