The hesychast tradition, richly illustrated in The Philokalia, has had a long-lasting influence on Romanian spiritual culture. The present communication will look at aspects related to this tradition, mainly to the works of fantasy (fantasia) and passion (pathos) versus the intellect of the heart (nous), as they appear in Romanian literature, from the Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir’s seventeenth-century Divanul sau gâlceava înţeleptului cu lumea (The Divan or the Wise Arguing against the World), up to contemporary writers such as Vasile Andru. Characteristic for the Romanian texts here discussed is the way in which the practice of hesychia, which in The Philokalia is illustrated mostly by examples taken from monastic life, can be adapted to the life of the Christians living ‘in the world’, the attainment of inner peace leading to their fulfilment as persons.
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