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

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 life to confess the renunciations and the sacred professions, not, as those men might say with a laugh, initiating one in place of another into the divine things. For he does not say this, "On behalf of the child I make the renunciations or sacred professions," but that "The child renounces and commits himself," that is, "I confess that I will persuade the child, when he comes to a sacred mind through my own divinely inspired instructions, to renounce completely the things that are contrary, and to profess and to enact the divine professions." There is, therefore, I think, nothing absurd, if the child is brought up according to a divine instruction, having a sacred guide and sponsor who creates in him a habit of the divine things and keeps him unacquainted with contrary things. And the hierarch imparts sacred symbols to the child, so that he may be brought up in them and have no other life than that which always beholds the divine things and becomes a partaker of them in sacred progress, having a holy habit in these things and being led up in a sacred manner by the godlike sponsor. So many, O son, and so beautiful are the uniform visions of our hierarchy that have appeared to me. But by other minds, perhaps more discerning, not only these things have been seen, but things far more manifest and more godlike. And to you also, I think, will surely shine far-shining and more divine beauties, if you use the aforesaid steps towards a higher ray. Share, therefore, O friend, with me yourself a more perfect illumination and show to my eyes what more comely and more uniform beauties you may be able to see. For I am confident that by what I have said I will stir up the sparks of the divine fire that lie hidden in you.

θείῳ πατρὶ καὶ σωτηρίας ἱερᾶς ἀναδόχῳ. Τοῦτον οὖν ὁ ἱεράρχης ὁμολογοῦντα κατὰ τὴν ἱερὰν ἀνάγειν τὸν παῖδα ζωὴν ἀπαιτεῖ τὰς ἀποταγὰς ὁμολογῆσαι καὶ τὰς ἱερὰς ὁμολογίας οὐχ, ὡς ἂν ἐκεῖνοι γελῶντες φαῖεν, ἄλλον ἀντ' ἄλλου τὰ θεῖα μυῶν. Oὐδὲ γὰρ τοῦτό φησιν ὡς «Ὑπὲρ τοῦ παιδὸς ἐγὼ τὰς ἀποταγὰς ἢ ἱερὰς ὁμολογίας ποιοῦμαι» ἀλλ' ὅτι «Ὁ παῖς ἀποτάσσεται καὶ συντάσσεται», τοῦτ' ἐστιν «Ὁμολογῶ τὸν παῖδα πείσειν εἰς νοῦν ἱερὸν ἰόντα ταῖς ἐμαῖς ἐνθέοις ἀναγωγαῖς ἀποτάξασθαι μὲν ὁλικῶς τοῖς ἐναντίοις, ὁμολογῆσαι δὲ καὶ ἐνεργῆσαι τὰς θείας ὁμολογίας». Oὐδὲν οὖν ὡς οἷμαι τὸ ἄτοπον, εἰ κατὰ θείαν ὁ παῖς ἀναγωγὴν ἀνάγεται καθηγεμόνα καὶ ἀνάδοχον ἱερὸν ἔχων ἕξιν αὐτῷ τῶν θείων ἐμποιοῦντα καὶ φυλάττοντα τῶν ἐναντίων ἀπείρατον. Μεταδίδωσι δὲ τῷ παιδὶ ἱερῶν συμβόλων ὁ ἱεράρχης, ὅπως ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀνατραφείη καὶ μηδὲ σχοίη ζωὴν ἑτέραν εἰ μὴ τὴν τὰ θεῖα θεωροῦσαν ἀεὶ καὶ κοινωνὸν αὐτῶν ἐν προκοπαῖς ἱεραῖς γινομένην ἕξιν τε ἱερὰν ἐν τούτοις ἴσχουσαν ἀναγομένην τε ἱεροπρεπῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοειδοῦς ἀναδόχου. Τοσαῦτα, ὦ παῖ, καὶ οὕτω καλὰ τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἱεραρχίας ὦπταί μοι τὰ ἑνοειδῆ θεάματα. Πρὸς ἄλλων δὲ ἴσως ὀπτικωτέρων νοῶν οὐ ταῦτα μόνον ἐθεωρήθη, φανερώτερα δὲ πολλῷ καὶ θεοειδέστερα. Καὶ σοὶ δὲ ὡς οἶμαι πάντως ἐλλάμψει τηλαυγέστερα κάλλη καὶ θειότερα τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἐπαναβαθμοῖς χρωμένῳ πρὸς ὑπερτέραν ἀκτῖνα. Μετάδος οὖν, ὦ φίλε, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐμοὶ τελεωτέρας ἐλλάμψεως καὶ δεῖξον ἐμοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς, ἅπερ ἂν ἰδεῖν δυνηθείης εὐπρεπέστερα κάλλη καὶ ἑνοειδέστερα. Θαρρῶ γάρ, ὅτι τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἐγὼ τοὺς ἐναποκειμένους ἐν σοὶ τοῦ θείου πυρὸς ἀνασκαλεύσω σπινθῆρας.