2009 Articles

The Life and Mission of St. Paisius Velichkovsky. 1722““1794. An Early Modern Master of the Orthodox Spiritual Life

McGuckin, John A.

St. Paisius Velichovsky is a major figure in the Philokalic revival of Eastern Orthodox Spirituality -- that tradition of spiritual practices that prioritised the Jesus prayer, the affective spirituality of the heart, and which was famously summed up in the Russian "Way of the Pilgrim" composed by one of his later followers. This essay considers Paisy's life and ministry in its historical context, something relatively inacccessible in the English language, and demonstrates the coherence of the mysticism, the political, and the reformatory work of this great Ukrainian Orthodox monk, Church reformer, and mystic.