The Celestial Hierarchy

Therefore, since we have, as I judge, well defined what hierarchy is, we must next praise the angelic hierarchy, and contemplate with supermundane eyes its wondrous figurative representations in Scripture, so that through these mystical representations we may ascend to their most deiform simplicity. At the same time, we shall praise the principle of all hierarchical knowledge with the reverence divinely spoken of beforehand, and with perfective thanksgivings.

First of all, this must be said as true: that the superessential Thearchy, by its universal goodness, established the essences of all things that are, and brought them into being. For this belongs properly to the Cause of all things, and to the Goodness above all things: to call all existing things to communion with itself, according as it is determined for each being by its own proper proportion.

Therefore all things that are participate in the providence which flows from the superessential and most causal Divinity. For perhaps they would not exist at all unless they received their essence from the principle of all things. All existing things, therefore, participate in its being; for the Divinity above being is the being of all things. Living things participate in that same vivifying power which is above every life. Rational and intellectual beings participate in that same Wisdom, perfect in itself and pre-perfect before all perfection, which is above all reason and intellect.

And it is clear that those essences are nearer to it which have received from it more abundantly. Therefore the holy ranks of the heavenly essences, being above those things which merely exist, above irrational living things, and above rational beings such as we are, have been made participants in hierarchical tradition. For, invisibly reforming themselves into divine imitation, looking supermundanely toward the likeness of the Thearchy, and desiring to form their intellectual beauty accordingly, they possess more abundant and beautiful communions with it. They are attentive to every divine life; they are, first and abundantly, and always, as far as is lawful, stretched upward toward the highest in the steadfastness of divine and inflexible love; receiving the principal illuminations immaterially and purely, ordered toward them, and possessing an entirely intellectual life.

They, therefore, have first and abundantly been made participants in God, and they are first and manifoldly manifestors of the divine hiddenness. For this reason, beyond all others, they have been especially deemed worthy of the name “angelic,” because the divine illumination first comes forth into them, and through them the manifestations above us are borne down to us.

For, as theology says, the Law was given to us through angels. Angels also led our glorious fathers before the Law back to the divine: either by introducing what was to be done, and by leading them from error and impure life to the right way of truth; or by prophetically revealing sacred orders of supermundane mysteries, hidden visions, or certain divine foretellings.

But if someone says that, in some cases, theophanies were made immediately to certain saints, let him also learn wisely from the most sacred Scriptures that no one has seen, nor shall see, what God is in Himself and what His hidden nature is. Theophanies, however, were made to the saints according to divine appointments, through certain sacred manifestations of visions proportioned to those who saw them.

Therefore that most wise theology rightly calls the vision described in it a divine theophany, as though it were a form of formless likenesses, because by it those who saw were led back toward the divine, and because through it a divine illumination was given to those who saw, and certain divine things were wondrously taught to them. But our glorious fathers were instructed in these divine visions through the mediation of the heavenly powers.

Does not the tradition of Scripture say that the sacred legislation itself was given to Moses from God, as though immediately from Him, in order truly to teach us that the Law is divine and sacred in character? Yet theology also wisely teaches that it came to us through angels, as the divine order of law established this lawfully: namely, that through the first ranks the second are led back to God.

For not only among higher and lower minds, but also among powers of equal rank, this law has been established by the superessential principle of the ordering of all things: that in every hierarchy there are first, middle, and last orders and powers, and that the more divine are teachers and guides of the lesser, leading them toward divine approach, illumination, and communion.

I see also that the angels were the first to teach the divine mystery of Christ’s humanity, and that afterward, through them, the grace of knowledge descended to us. Thus the most divine Gabriel taught Zacharias, the high priest, the mysteries: namely, that the child who would be born from him, beyond hope, by divine grace, would be a prophet, divinely and savingly manifesting to the world the divine operation of the manly Jesus. Gabriel also taught Mary how the divine mystery of the ineffable divine formation would take place in her.

Another of the angels instructed Joseph how the things divinely promised to his forefather David would truly be fulfilled. Another evangelized the shepherds, who had been brought back, as it were, from the silence and withdrawal of many, and with him the multitude of the heavenly host handed down to those on earth that most praiseworthy doxology.

And let me look to the highest appearances of light in the Scriptures. For I see that even Jesus Himself, the superessential Essence of the supercelestial essences, when He came immutably to that which belongs to us, did not refuse the good human order arranged under Him, chosen and ministerial, but obediently submitted Himself to the arrangements of the Father and God through angels.

Through these intermediaries, Joseph was told of the departure of the Son into Egypt, appointed by the Father, and again of His return from Egypt into Judea. And through angels we see Him ordered under the paternal laws.

I refrain from speaking, since you know from our sacerdotal traditions what is expressly handed down concerning the angel who strengthened Jesus; or that Jesus Himself, having come for our saving and manifesting beneficence, is called the Angel of great counsel. For, as the Angel Himself foretold, whatever He heard from the Father, He announced to us.