Kallistos Ware

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (1934–2022) was an Eastern Orthodox priest and theologian and one of the most respected spiritual voices of his generation. He joined the Orthodox Church in 1958 and for several decades was Spalding Lecturer in Eastern rthodox Studies at Oxford University. In 1966, he was ordained priest and tonsured a monk on Patmos, later becoming Metropolitan of Diokleia. His seminal work, The Orthodox Church (1963), remains the standard introduction to the faith, while The Orthodox Way (1979) explores its mystical heart. A masterful translator, he was a key figure in bringing the Philokalia to the English-speaking world. His legacy is defined by a rare ability to combine rigorous scholarship with a gentle, lived experience of the ‘prayer of the heart’, making him a vital bridge between East and West.