The Philokalia (Dobrotolubiye)
Добротолюбие
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
The Philokalia is the foundational anthology of hesychast spiritual writings spanning the 4th through 15th centuries, assembled on Mount Athos by Sts. Makarios of Corinth and Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and first printed in Venice in 1782. Paisios Velichkovsky's 1793 Slavonic translation set off a monastic revival across the Russian Empire, and Theophan the Recluse's expanded Russian edition of 1877–1889 brought its teaching on sobriety of mind, watchfulness, and the Jesus Prayer to educated laypeople throughout the late imperial period. The text was the direct source drawn upon by the anonymous narrator of 'The Way of a Pilgrim' and the backbone of the confessor culture surrounding Nicholas II's court, though no individually labelled Romanov copy appears in any known Ekaterinburg inventory. Its influence on late-Romanov Orthodox piety is certain; direct family reading cannot be documented.
Why it still matters
Reading the Philokalia alongside a spiritual director—beginning with Volume One of Theophan's Russian edition or the Palmer, Sherrard, and Ware English translation—remains one of the most transformative practices available to an Orthodox Christian today. Short daily readings from Evagrius, Hesychios, or Diadochos of Photike pair well with the Jesus Prayer.
Kept alongside
The Way of a Pilgrim (Otkrovennye Rasskazy Strannika)
Откровенные рассказы странника духовному своему отцу
An anonymous 19th-century Russian spiritual classic narrating an unnamed wandering pilgrim's journey to learn to 'pray without ceasing' through the Jesus Prayer, guided by a starets and the Philokalia. First published in Kazan in 1884, it spread rapidly across educated Russian society during the final Romanov decades and was among the most widely circulated Orthodox devotional books of the imperial period. No personal Romanov copy is documented in any known inventory, but its extraordinary popularity makes it fully representative of the devotional climate in which Nicholas II and Alexandra were formed. Confidence is calibrated as era-typical: the text was ubiquitous in the world the Romanovs inhabited but no documented personal connection exists.
Orthodox Prayer Book (Molitvoslov)
Молитвослов
The Molitvoslov is the standard Orthodox laypeople's prayer book, containing morning and evening prayers, canons, akathists, the preparatory rule for Holy Communion, and occasional prayers for every circumstance of life. A copy with dark blue calico binding and the monograms 'NA' and 'AF' under an imperial crown, dated 6 May 1883, was documented among the Romanov books recovered at Ekaterinburg, and Empress Alexandra learned Church Slavonic specifically to pray from these texts. The Royal Family's prayer rule during their final captivity at Tobolsk and Ekaterinburg was structured on the Molitvoslov cycle. All five Romanov children were instructed in its use as part of the 'Law of God' curriculum prescribed for Orthodox subjects of the Empire.
Rules for Preparation for Holy Communion
Правила ко Святому Причащению
The formal rule of prayers and canons — three preparatory canons, the Akathist to Jesus, and the Canon of Thanksgiving — used before and after receiving Holy Communion in the Russian Orthodox tradition. A copy inscribed 'To my dear Tatiana, from Mama, 9 February 1912' was documented among the Romanov books recovered at Ekaterinburg, testifying to Alexandra's deliberate formation of her children in sacramental preparation. Nicholas II recorded in his diary the deep significance of receiving Communion, describing his 1900 Kremlin Communion as a profound spiritual milestone. The rule existed in printed prayer-book form as a private devotional, though its liturgical roots are fully public.