Moscow, April 14, 2017
Portuguese publishing house “Paulinas” has released the book Pequena Filocalia (“Small Philokalia”). The 800-page tome includes works of the great monastic teachers translated into Portuguese: St. Anthony the Great, Evagrius Ponticus, St. Macarius the Egyptian, St. John Cassian, St. Hesychios of Sinai, St. Mark the Ascetic, St. Maximus the Confessor, St. Symeon the New Theologian, St. Gregory of Sinai, St. Gregory Palamas, and other fathers of the Church.
The Patristic works were translated from ancient Greek by Portuguese translator António de Almeida and compiled and edited for publication by Igumen Arseny (Sokolov), representative of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East.
Editor for the “Paulinas” publishing house Rui Oliveira expressed confidence that the book will not only be read with interest by Portuguese-speaking readers, but for many of them will be the opening of the Orthodox ascetic tradition.
The Philokalia of St. Macarios of Corinth (1731–1805) and St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain 1749–1809) was first published in Venice in 1782. Since the eighteenth century, this collection has been the foundational work for all Orthodox spirituality, both Greek and Slavic. Since the time of publication of this book containing 1206 pages in the Greek original and representing over thirty authors, it has been printed in abridged forms and translated into various languages—most notably Slavonic, Russian, modern Greek, Romanian, English, French, and Italian.