St. Dionysius the Areopagite: The Celestial Hierarchy, Chapter 13
·
“Come, then, let us examine this as best we can, why the Seraphim is said to be sent to one of the Theologians…”
Eastern Orthodox Saints in English
Eastern Orthodox Saints in English
·
“Come, then, let us examine this as best we can, why the Seraphim is said to be sent to one of the Theologians…”
·
“Inasmuch as the lowest Orders do not possess the completeness of the superior, for what reason is our Hierarch named by the Oracles, ‘Angel of the Sovereign Lord?'”
·
“Now that we have defined these things, it is worthy of consideration for what reason we are accustomed to call all the Angelic Beings together, Heavenly Powers.”
·
“We have concluded, then, that the most reverend Order of the Minds around God, ministered by the perfecting illumination through its immediate elevation to it, is purified, and illuminated, and perfected by a gift of light from the Godhead…”
·
“There remains for our reverent contemplation a Division which completes the Angelic Hierarchies, that divided into the Godlike Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.”
·
“Let us now pass to the middle Order of the Heavenly Minds, gazing, as far as we may, with supermundane eyes upon those Lordships, and the truly terrible visions of the Divine Authorities and Powers.”
·
“We, whilst admitting this as the arrangement of the holy Hierarchies, affirm, that every appellation of the celestial Minds denotes the Godlike characteristic of each…”
·
“How many, and of what sort, are the Orders of the supercelestial Beings, and how the Hierarchies are classified amongst themselves, I affirm, the deifying Author of their consecration alone distinctly knows…”
·
“This, then, in our judgment, is the reason for the appellation Angelic in the Oracles. We must now, I suppose, enquire for what reason the theologians call all the Heavenly Beings together “Angels;” but when they come to a more accurate description of the supermundane orders, they name exclusively, “angelic rank,” that which completes the…
·
“Now that the Hierarchy itself has been, in my judgment, sufficiently defined, we must next extol the Angelic Hierarchy, and we must contemplate, with supermundane eyes, its sacred formations, depicted in the Oracles, in order that we may be borne aloft to their Divinely resplendent simplicity…”