TO THE FELLOW-PRESBYTER TIMOTHY, DIONYSIUS THE PRESBYTER

 I will try to speak, so far as it is possible, calling upon Jesus, the beginning and perfection of all hierarchies. <3> According to the venerable asp

 for their own sanctity), that you will not impart any sacred word of the supereminent hierarchy to another besides your like-ranked, God-like initiato

 of salvation, and in thanksgiving for the divine goodness, having gathered them into the sacred place, at the beginning he sacredly recites a certain

 indicating symbolically a complete cleansing for the body being cleansed naturally through water. <2> But let this be for the imperfect an introductor

 a tradition, sacredly signifying, having stripped the one approaching of his former life, so to speak, and having released him even from the final tie

 <III.> But it is well that we have remembered this, which it is not lawful for me, passing it by, to praise any other of the hierarchical rites before

 being led up hierarchically in purity of the godlike state. Contemplation. <1> Come now, then, O good child, after the images, in order and sacredly t

 way of life and sacred teachings, or the hidden and mystical vision of the beloved and divine of the disciples, or the supramundane theology of Jesus

 still entangled by contrary either charms or disturbances. But also from them the vision and communion of the most holy things is withheld, and very r

 to be gathered and to partake of the peaceful union of the one, those who are divided against themselves. For if, illuminated by the contemplation and

 most suffering alteration. And wandering and turned aside from the straight path which leads to the truly existing God, and being subject to the destr

 being formed from us and proceeding unchangeably from the one according to nature towards our divisible nature, and through this beneficent love for h

 for vain glory the beautiful and fragrant assimilations according to virtue of the hidden God. For the hidden and supra-intellectual fragrant comeline

 not only having but also bestowing the power to act against contrary fear, and to those who have passed over from worse things to a sacred mind, they

 of the understanding of the divine goods but the sixfold position of the wings, as the oracles say, I do not think signifies a sacred number, accordi

 Jesus, the altar, the thearchic consecration of the divine minds, in whom, according to the oracle, being consecrated and mystically offered as whole

 Theology calls the more perfect initiation our hierarchy, describing it as the fulfillment and sacred consummation of that other. It is both celestial

 For even if some of the venerable symbols are performed by the priests, yet the priest will never effect the sacred divine birth without the most divi

 The mystery of the priestly consecrations. The hierarch, being brought forward to the hierarchical consecration, having bent both knees before the div

 the Spirit hierarchically confers the source-of-perfection consecrating rite, commanding the disciples, as the oracles say: “Not to depart from Jerusa

 <VI.> <1> These then are the priestly orders and allotments, their powers and energies and perfections. We must next relate the triad of orders being

 mysteries. Contemplation. <1> That he does not bend either of his feet, nor has the divinely transmitted oracles upon his head, but stands by the prie

 multiplying, it was borne to a fall. But it is possible to say sacredly concerning the heavenly hierarchy, that purification for the inferior beings i

 but having surveyed with other eyes the perishing pleasures of their own passions and having blessed the sacred life from which they have senselessly

 Only the catechumens are cast out from the sacred places. For this class is indeed wholly uninitiated in every sacred rite, and it is not lawful for i

 and having a sacred disposition for participation in them, as one conscious of his own littleness, should go to one of the holy men and ask him to bec

 must be attended to as moved by God. For, He who rejects you, he says, rejects me. <8> But let us return to what follows the aforesaid prayer. For

 to a divine father and sponsor of holy salvation. The hierarch, therefore, requires him who confesses that he will lead the child up to the sacred lif

of salvation, and in thanksgiving for the divine goodness, having gathered them into the sacred place, at the beginning he sacredly recites a certain hymn contained in the oracles with all the congregations of the church, and after this, having venerated the holy table, he goes forward to the man who is present and asks of him why he has come. <5> When he, in a God-loving manner, has accused, according to the instruction of the sponsor, godlessness, ignorance of the truly good, the inactivity of the divine life, and asks to attain God and divine things through his sacred mediation, he testifies to him that a complete approach is owed as to a God who is all-perfect and blameless, and having explained to him the divine way of life and having further asked if he would live thus, after the confession he places his hand upon his head and having sealed him, he commands the priests to enroll the man and the sponsor. <6> When they have enrolled him, he makes a holy prayer, and when the whole church has completed it with him, he both unbinds his sandals and divests him through the ministers. Then, having placed him facing the west with his hands stretched out, turned toward the same region, he commands him to breathe three times upon Satan and furthermore to profess the words of renunciation, and after he has testified to him the renunciation three times and he has professed this three times, he turns him toward the east and having him look up to heaven and raise his hands, he commands him to pledge allegiance to Christ and to all the divinely transmitted sacred words. <7> When he has also done this, he again testifies to him the profession three times, and when he has again professed it three times, after praying over him, he blesses and lays hands on him. And when the ministers have completely divested him, the priests bring the holy oil of anointing, and he, having begun the anointing by sealing him three times, having handed over the man to the priests to anoint his whole body for the remainder, he himself goes to the mother of adoption and having consecrated its water with sacred invocations and having perfected it with three cross-shaped pourings of the most holy myrrh and having uttered together, with an equal number of all-holy proclamations of the myrrh, the sacred melody of the inspiration of the God-possessed prophets, he commands the man to be brought forward. And when a certain priest has announced from the register both him and his sponsor, he is led by the priests to the water, being led by the hand to the hand of the hierarch, and the hierarch, standing over him, when the priests have again proclaimed over the water in the presence of the hierarch the name of the one being initiated, three times [the hierarch] baptizes him with three immersions and emersions of the one being initiated, invoking the triple hypostasis of the divine blessedness; and the priests, receiving him, hand him over to the sponsor and leader of his presentation and with him they clothe the initiated with a suitable garment and lead him again to the hierarch. And he, having sealed the man with the most divinely operative myrrh, declares him henceforth a partaker of the most sacramentally perfecting Eucharist. <8> And having completed these things, from the progression to the secondary things, he is again raised up to the contemplation of the primary things, as at no time or in no way being turned to anything foreign, apart from what is proper to him, but from divine things to divine things proximately and is always reordered by the divine Spirit. Contemplation. <1> This sacred ceremony of divine birth, being in symbols, has nothing unseemly or unholy, nor any of sensible images, but is riddles of a contemplation worthy of God, imaged in natural and humanly fitting mirrors. For in what would it appear to be in error, even if the diviner meaning of the rites were kept silent, sacredly arranging the good life of the one approaching through persuasion and divine utterance, and announcing to him in a more bodily way, through the natural cleansing with water, the purification from all evil at once through a virtuous and divine life? In this way, therefore, even if the symbolic tradition of the rites had nothing more divine in it, it would not, I think, be unholy, introducing as it does a teaching of an ordered life, and the complete of the life in evil

σωτηρίας, εὐχαριστίᾳ δὲ τῆς θείας ἀγαθότητος εἰς τὸν ἱερὸν χῶρον συναγαγὼν ἐν ἀρχῇ μὲν ὕμνον τινὰ τοῖς λογίοις ἐγκείμενον ἅμα πᾶσι τοῖς τῆς ἐκκλησίας πληρώμασιν ἱερολογεῖ καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο τὴν ἱερὰν ἀσπασάμενος τράπεζαν πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα παρόντα πρόεισι καὶ πυνθάνεται παρ' αὐτοῦ τί βουλόμενος ἥκοι. <5> Τοῦ δὲ θεοφιλῶς αἰτιασαμένου κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀναδόχου παράδοσιν τὴν ἀθεότητα τὴν ἀγνωσίαν τοῦ ὄντως καλοῦ τὴν τῆς ἐνθέου ζωῆς ἀνενεργησίαν, ἀξιοῦντός τε διὰ τῆς ἱερᾶς αὐτοῦ μεσιτείας θεοῦ καὶ τῶν θείων τυχεῖν, μαρτύρεται μὲν αὐτῷ τὴν ὀφειλομένην ὁλικὴν γενέσθαι προσέλευσιν ὡς παντελείῳ καὶ ἀμώμῳ ὄντι θεῷ, καὶ τὴν ἔνθεον αὐτῷ πολιτείαν ὑφηγησάμενος καὶ προσερωτήσας, εἰ οὕτω πολιτεύσαιτο, μετὰ τὴν ὁμολογίαν ἐπιτίθησιν αὐτοῦ τῇ κεφαλῇ τὴν χεῖρα καὶ σφραγισάμενος ἀπογράψασθαι κελεύει τοῖς ἱερεῦσι τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ τὸν ἀνάδοχον. <6> Τῶν δὲ ἀπογραψαμένων εὐχὴν ἱερὰν ποιεῖται, καὶ ταύτην ἁπάσης αὐτῷ τῆς ἐκκλησίας συμπληρωσάσης ὑπολύει μὲν αὐτὸν καὶ ἀπαμφιέννυσι διὰ τῶν λειτουργῶν. Eἶτα στήσας ἐπὶ δυσμαῖς προσέχοντα καὶ τὰς χεῖρας ἀπωθοῦντα πρὸς τὴν αὐτὴν ἀπεστραμμένας χώραν ἐμφυσῆσαι μὲν αὐτῷ τρὶς διακελεύεται τῷ Σατανᾷ καὶ προσέτι τὰ τῆς ἀποταγῆς ὁμολογῆσαι, καὶ τρὶς αὐτῷ τὴν ἀποταγὴν αρτυρόμενος ὁμολογήσαντα τρὶς τοῦτο μετάγει πρὸς ἕω καὶ πρὸς οὐρανὸν ἀναβλέψαντα καὶ τὰς χεῖρας ἀνατείναντα κελεύει συντάξασθαι τῷ Χριστῷ καὶ πάσαις ταῖς θεοπαραδότοις ἱερολογίαις. <7> Τοῦ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο πεποιηκότος μαρτύρεται πάλιν αὐτῷ τρὶς τὴν ολογίαν, καὶ πάλιν αὐτοῦ τρὶς ὁμολογήσαντος ἐπευξάμενος εὐλογεῖ καὶ χειροθετεῖ. Καὶ τελείως ἀπαμφιεσάντων αὐτὸν τῶν λειτουργῶν κομίζουσι μὲν οἱ ἱερεῖς τὸ τῆς χρίσεως ἅγιον ἔλαιον, ὁ δὲ τῆς χρίσεως διὰ τοῦ σφραγίσαι τρὶς ἀπαρξάμενος τὸ λοιπὸν τοῖς ἱερεῦσι τὸν ἄνδρα χρῖσαι πανσώμως παραδοὺς αὐτὸς ἐπὶ τὴν μητέρα τῆς υἱοθεσίας ἔρχεται καὶ τὸ ταύτης ὕδωρ ἱεραῖς ἐπικλήσεσι καθαγιάσας καὶ τρισὶ τοῦ παναγεστάτου μύρου σταυροειδέσι χύσεσι τελειώσας αὐτὸ καὶ ταῖς τοῦ μύρου πανιέροις ἐπιβολαῖς ἰσαρίθμως τὸ ἱερὸν τῆς τῶν θεολήπτων προφητῶν ἐπιπνοίας μελῴδημα συνεπιφθεγξάμενος κελεύει τὸν ἄνδρα προσκομισθῆναι. Καί τινος ἱερέως ἐκ τῆς ἀπογραφῆς αὐτόν τε καὶ τὸν ἀνάδοχον ἀνακηρύξαντος ὁ μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν ἱερέων ἐπὶ τοῦ ὕδατος ἄγεται πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἱεράρχου χεῖρα χειραγωγούμενος, ὁ δὲ ἱεράρχης ἄνωθεν ἑστηκὼς ἀναβοησάντων πάλιν ἐπὶ τοῦ ἱεράρχου κατὰ τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ τελουμένου τῶν ἱερέων, τρὶς μὲν αὐτὸν [ὁ ἱεράρχης] βαπτίζει ταῖς τρισὶ τοῦ τελουμένου καταδύσεσι καὶ ἀναδύσεσι τὴν τρισσὴν τῆς θείας μακαριότητος ἐπιβοήσας ὑπόστασιν· καὶ παραλαβόντες αὐτὸν οἱ ἱερεῖς ἐγχειρίζουσι τῷ τῆς προσαγωγῆς ἀναδόχῳ τε καὶ ἡγεμόνι καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ περιβαλόντες ἐσθῆτα τῷ τελουμένῳ κατάλληλον ἐπὶ τὸν ἱεράρχην αὖθις ἄγουσιν. Ὁ δὲ τῷ θεουργικωτάτῳ μύρῳ τὸν ἄνδρα σφραγισάμενος μέτοχον ἀποφαίνει λοιπὸν τῆς ἱεροτελεστικωτάτης εὐχαριστίας. <8> Ταῦτα δὲ τελέσας ἀπὸ τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ δεύτερα προόδου πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν πρώτων ἀνατείνεται θεωρίαν ὡς κατὰ μηδένα καιρὸν ἢ τρόπον ἐπ' ἀλλοτρίῳ τινὶ παρὰ τὰ οἰκεῖα τρεπόμενος, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ θείων εἰς θεῖα προσεχῶς καὶ ἀεὶ τῷ θεαρχικῷ πνεύματι μεταταττόμενος. Θεωρία. <1> Aὕτη μὴν ὡς ἐν συμβόλοις ἡ τῆς ἱερᾶς τελετὴ θεογενεσίας οὐδὲν ἀπρεπὲς ἢ ἀνίερον οὐδὲ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἔχουσα εἰκόνων, ἀλλ' ἀξιοθέου θεωρίας αἰνίγματα φυσικοῖς καὶ ἀνθρωποπρεπέσιν ἐσόπτροις ἐνεικονιζόμενα. Τί γὰρ ἂν φανείη διαμαρτάνουσα καὶ τοῦ θειοτέρου λόγου τῶν τελουμένων σεσιγημένου πειθοῖ καὶ θεορρημοσύνῃ τὴν τοῦ προσιόντος εὐζωΐαν ἱερῶς διαπραγματευομένη καὶ τὴν ἁπάσης ὁμοῦ κακίας δι' ἐναρέτου καὶ θείας ζωῆς ἀποκάθαρσιν τῇ δι' ὕδατος φυσικῇ καθάρσει σωματικώτερον αὐτῷ διαγγέλλουσα; Ταύτῃ δ' οὖν, εἰ καὶ μηδέν τι θειότερον εἶχεν ἡ τῶν τελουμένων συμβολικὴ παράδοσις, οὐκ ἀνίερος ἦν ὡς οἶμαι διδασκαλίαν μὲν εὐθέτου ζωῆς εἰσηγουμένη, τὴν παντελῆ δὲ τῆς ἐν κακίᾳ πολιτείας