The Philokalia means “love of the beautiful, the good”, is a collection of texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by spiritual masters of the Eastern Orthodox Church mystical Hesychast tradition. They were originally written for the guidance and instruction of monks in “the practice of the contemplative life.” The collection was compiled in the eighteenth century (1782) by St. Nicodemus of Mount Athos and Macarius of Corinth.