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 knowledge of the one, we should be unified into the single-formed and divine congregation, we would not endure to fall into divisive desires, from which are created the material and passionate hatreds towards that which is homogenous by nature. This single-formed and undivided life, then, as I think, the sacred rite of peace legislates, establishing like in like and distinguishing the divine and unified visions from the divisive. <9> The proclamation from the sacred diptychs after the peace declares those who have lived piously and have arrived unchangeably at the perfection of a virtuous life, urging and guiding us toward their blessed state and godlike end through likeness, and proclaiming them as living and, as theology says, not dead, but passed over from death to a most divine life. Consider, then, that they are dedicated to sacred memorials of the divine memory, not signified humanly in the imagination of the mnemonic faculty, but, as one might say, in a manner befitting God, according to the honorable and unchangeable knowledge in God of the godlike who have been perfected. For the scriptures said, “He knew those who are His” and “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (the death of the saints being spoken of instead of the perfection in holiness). And understand this sacredly, too, that when the venerable symbols, through which Christ is signified and partaken of, have been placed upon the divine altar, the register of the saints is present without separation, showing their indivisibly conjoined supercosmic and sacred union with him. <10> When these things have been celebrated according to the rite mentioned, the hierarch, standing before the most holy symbols, washes his hands with water along with the venerable order of priests. That, then, as the scriptures say, he who has been washed needs nothing else but the washing of his extremities or outermost parts, through which highest purification he will possess the godlike in all-purity, and proceeding to secondary things will be good-formly unhindered and free as one who is once and for all single-formed, and returning again unitively to the one, he will make his return undefiled and spotless, preserving the fullness and wholeness of the godlike, the sacred font, as we have said, was in the hierarchy according to the law, but now the purification of the hands of the hierarch and the priests hints at it. For those who approach the most holy rite must be purified even to the last imaginings of the soul and approach it through likeness as far as is possible. For thus they will be more brightly illumined by the theophanies, as the supercosmic splendors more wholly and clearly allow their own radiance to pass into the brilliance of like-formed mirrors. And the washing of the hierarch and the priests to their extremities, or outermost parts, takes place before the most holy symbols as before Christ who oversees all our most secret thoughts, and of the highest purification being defined in His all-seeing scrutinies and His most just and impartial judgments. Thus the hierarch is united to the divine things and, having hymned the sacred divine works, he celebrates the most divine things and brings to view the things that have been hymned. <11> What then we say are the divine works for us, must next be related as far as possible. For I am not able to hymn them all, much less to know them clearly and initiate others. But as many as are hymned and celebrated by the divinely-inspired hierarchs in accordance with the scriptures, these we shall speak of as far as is possible for us, having invoked the hierarchic inspiration as a helper. Human nature from the beginning, having foolishly slipped away from the divine goods, is succeeded by a most passible life and the end of corrupting death. For accordingly, the ruinous apostasy from true goodness and the transgression of the sacred ordinance in paradise delivered him who had been driven mad from the life-giving yoke by the alluring and hostile deceits of the adversary, to the contraries of the divine goods, its own followers. From where, pitiably, instead of the eternal it received the mortal in exchange, and having its own beginning in corruptible generations was reasonably led to the end appropriate to its beginning, but also having willingly fallen away from the divine and uplifting life, it was carried to the opposite extremity, the

συνάγεσθαι καὶ τῆς τοῦ ἑνὸς μετέχειν εἰρηναίας ἑνώσεως τοὺς πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς διῃρημένους. Eἰ γὰρ ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ ἑνὸς θεωρίας καὶ γνώσεως ἐλλαμπόμενοι πρὸς τὴν ἑνοειδῆ καὶ θείαν συναγωγὴν ἑνοποιηθῶμεν, οὐκ ἂν ἐπὶ τὰς μεριστὰς ἀνασχοίμεθα καταπίπτειν ἐπιθυμίας, ἐξ ὧν αἱ πρόσυλοι δημιουργοῦνται καὶ ἐμπαθεῖς πρὸς τὸ κατὰ φύσιν ὁμοειδὲς ἀπέχθειαι. Ταύτην οὖν ὡς οἶμαι τὴν ἑνοειδῆ καὶ ἀδιαίρετον ζωὴν ἡ τῆς εἰρήνης ἱερουργία νομοθετεῖ τῷ ὁμοίῳ τὸ ὅμοιον ἐνιδρύουσα καὶ τῶν μεριστῶν ἀποδιαστέλλουσα τὰ θεῖα καὶ ἑνιαῖα θεάματα. <9> Τῶν δὲ ἱερῶν πτυχῶν ἡ μετὰ τὴν εἰρήνην ἀνάρρησις ἀνακηρύττει τοὺς ὁσίως βεβιωκότας καὶ πρὸς ἐναρέτου ζωῆς τελείωσιν ἀμεταστάτως ἀφικομένους ἡμᾶς μὲν ἐπὶ τὴν δι' ὁμοιότητος αὐτῶν μακαριστήν ἕξιν καὶ θεοειδῆ λῆξιν προτρέπουσα καὶ χειραγωγοῦσα, τοὺς δὲ ὡς ζῶντας ἀνακηρύττουσα καὶ ὡς ἡ θεολογία φησὶν οὐ νεκρωθέντας, ἀλλ' εἰς θειοτάτην ζωὴν ἐκ θανάτου μεταφοιτήσαντας. Σκόπει δέ, ὅτι καὶ μνημοσύνοις ἱεροῖς ἀνατέθεινται τῆς θείας μνήμης οὐκ ἀνθρωπικῶς ἐν τῇ τοῦ μνημονικοῦ φαντασίᾳ δηλουμένης, ἀλλ' ὡς ἄν τις φαίη θεοπρεπῶς κατὰ τὴν ἐν θεῷ τῶν τετελεσμένων θεοειδῶν τιμίαν καὶ ἀμετάστατον γνῶσιν. «Ἔγνω» γὰρ ἔφη τὰ λόγια «τοὺς ὄντας αὐτοῦ» καὶ «Τίμιος ἐναντίον κυρίου ὁ θάνατος τῶν ὁσίων αὐτοῦ» (τοῦ θανάτου τῶν ὁσίων ἀντὶ τῆς ἐν ὁσιότητι τελειώσεως εἰρημένου). Καὶ τοῦτο δὲ ἱερῶς ἐννόησον, ὡς ἐπιτεθέντων τῷ θείῳ θυσιαστηρίῳ τῶν σεβασμίων συμβόλων, δι' ὧν ὁ Χριστὸς σημαίνεται καὶ μετέχεται, πάρεστιν ἀδιαστάτως ἡ τῶν ἁγίων ἀπογραφὴ τὸ συνεζευγμένον αὐτῶν ἀδιαιρέτως ἐμφαίνουσα τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν ὑπερκοσμίου καὶ ἱερᾶς ἑνώσεως. <10> Τούτων δέ, καθ' ὃν εἴρηται θεσμόν, ἱερουργηθέντων ἑστὼς ἐπίπροσθεν τῶν ἁγιωτάτων συμβόλων ὕδατι τὰς χεῖρας ὁ ἱεράρχης νίπτεται μετὰ τοῦ σεμνοῦ τῶν ἱερέων τάγματος. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν, ὡς τὰ λόγιά φησιν, ὁ λελουμένος οὐ δεῖταί τινος ἑτέρας εἰ μὴ τῆς τῶν ἄκρων εἴτ' οὖν ἐσχάτων ἑαυτοῦ νίψεως δι' ἧς ἀκροτάτης καθάρσεως ἐν πανάγνῳ τοῦ θεοειδοῦς ἕξει καὶ πρὸς τὰ δεύτερα προϊὼν ἀγαθοειδῶς ἄσχετος ἔσται καὶ ἀπόλυτος ὡς καθάπαξ ἑνοειδής, καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἓν αὖθις ἑνιαίως ἐπιστρεφόμενος ἄχραντον ποιήσεται καὶ ἀκηλίδωτον τὴν ἐπιστροφὴν ὡς τοῦ θεοειδοῦς ἀποσώζων τὸ πλῆρες καὶ ὁλόκληρον, ὁ μὲν ἱερὸς λουτήρ, ὡς εἰρήκαμεν, ἐν τῇ κατὰ νόμον ἦν ἱεραρχίᾳ, νῦν δὲ τοῦ ἱεράρχου καὶ τῶν ἱερέων ἡ τῶν χειρῶν ἀποκάθαρσις αὐτὸν ὑπαινίσσεται. Τοὺς γὰρ ἐπὶ τὴν παναγεστάτην ἰόντας ἱερουργίαν ἀποκεκαθάρθαι δεῖ καὶ τὰς ἐσχάτας τῆς ψυχῆς φαντασίας καὶ δι' ὁμοιότητος αὐτῇ κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν προσιέναι. Φανοτέρας γὰρ οὕτω τὰς θεοφανείας περιαυγασθήσονται τῶν ὑπερκοσμίων μαρμαρυγῶν εἰς τὴν τῶν ὁμοειδῶν ἐσόπτρων ἀγλαΐαν ὁλικώτερον καὶ διαυγέστερον ἐφιέντων διϊέναι τὴν οἰκείαν αἴγλην. Ἡ δὲ τοῦ ἱεράρχου καὶ τῶν ἱερέων ἄχρι τῶν ἄκρων εἴτ' οὖν ἐσχάτων ἀπόνιψις ἐπίπροσθεν γίνεται τῶν ἁγιωτάτων συμβόλων ὡς ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ τοῦ πάσας ἐφορῶντος ἡμῶν τὰς κρυφιωτάτας ἐννοίας καὶ τῆς ἀκροτάτης καθάρσεως ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῦ πανεπισκόποις ἀκριβασμοῖς καὶ ταῖς δικαιοτάτοις καὶ ἀδεκάστοις κρίσεσιν ὁριζομένης. Oὕτω τοῖς θείοις ὁ ἱεράρχης ἑνοῦται καὶ τὰς ἱερὰς θεουργίας ὑμνήσας ἱερουργεῖ τὰ θειότατα καὶ ὑπ' ὄψιν ἄγει τὰ ὑμνημένα. <11> Τίνας μὲν οὖν εἶναι τὰς εἰς ἡμᾶς θεουργίας φαμέν, ἑξῆς ἀφηγητέον ὅση δύναμις. Oὐ γὰρ ἁπάσας ὑμνεῖν ἱκανὸς ἐγὼ μήτι γε σαφῶς εἰδέναι καὶ ἑτέρους μυσταγωγεῖν. Ὅσα δὲ πρὸς τῶν ἐνθέων ἱεραρχῶν ἀκολούθως τοῖς λογίοις ὑμνεῖται καὶ ἱερουργεῖται, ταῦτα ὡς ἡμῖν ἐφικτὸν ἐροῦμεν τὴν ἱεραρχικὴν ἐπίπνοιαν ἀρωγὸν ἐπικαλεσάμενοι. Τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν φύσιν ἀρχῆθεν ἀπὸ τῶν θείων ἀγαθῶν ἀνοήτως ἐξολισθήσασαν ἡ πολυπαθεστάτη ζωὴ διαδέχεται καὶ τὸ τοῦ φθοροποιοῦ θανάτου πέρας. Ἀκολούθως γὰρ ἡ τῆς ὄντως ἀγαθότητος ὀλέθριος ἀποστασία καὶ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἐν παραδείσῳ θεσμοθεσίας ὑπερβασία τὸν ἐξοιστρήσαντα τοῦ ζωοποιοῦ ζυγοῦ ταῖς θελκτικαῖς τοῦ ἐναντίου καὶ δυσμενέσιν ἀπάταις, τοῖς ἐναντίοις τῶν θείων ἀγαθῶν, οἰκείαις ·οπαῖς παραδέδωκεν. Ἔνθεν ἐλεεινῶς ἀντὶ μὲν αἰωνίου τὸ θνητὸν ἀντηλλάξατο, τὴν δὲ οἰκείαν ἀρχὴν ἐν φθαρτικαῖς ἐσχηκυῖα γενέσεσιν ἐπὶ τὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς κατάλληλον εἰκότως ἤγετο πέρας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς θείας καὶ ἀναγωγοῦ ζωῆς ἐθελουσίως ἀποπεσοῦσα πρὸς τὴν ἐναντίαν ἐσχατιὰν ἠνέχθη, τὴν