Introduction

St. Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894) was a Russian Orthodox bishop who, after years of episcopal service, withdrew in 1872 into strict reclusion at the Vysha hermitage, where he devoted the rest of his life to prayer, to answering the letters of those who sought his counsel, and to translating the Greek Philokalia into accessible Russian. The Russian Church canonized him in 1988.

These four homilies on prayer were preached in church and set down the heart of Theophan’s teaching on the inner life. He begins from the simplest acts of prayer and leads the reader, step by step, toward unceasing prayer — the steady warmth of the heart turned always toward God.

In the first homily he describes how prayer is learned at all; in the second, how the soul is trained to turn to God throughout the day through the remembrance of God, the directing of every deed to His glory, and meditation on the divine perfections. The third homily treats unceasing prayer as a state of the spirit rather than a series of separate acts, and the fourth shows how prayer stands as the queen of the virtues, never alone but crowning a whole life of faith, hope, and love.