The Celestial Hierarchy

Name: The Celestial Hierarchy
Author: Dionysius the Areopagite

The Celestial Hierarchy (De caelesti hierarchia) is the principal angelological treatise of the Christian Neoplatonist writing under the name Dionysius the Areopagite, probably in the late fifth or early sixth century. It interprets biblical images of heavenly beings as a graded economy of purification, illumination, and perfection, famously arranging nine angelic orders in three triads. Through its Greek and Latin transmission, its vocabulary of hierarchy and participation became enormously influential in Byzantine and medieval Latin theology, including the angelology of Aquinas and later commentators. Schola presents the work in Latin and English.

CAPITULUM PRIMUM. Quomodo omnis divina illuminatio secundum bonitatem varie in praevisa proveniens manet simpla, et non hoc solum sed et unificat illuminata.

CAPITULUM II. Quam pulchre divina et caelestia etiam per dissimilia symbola manifestantur.

CAPITULUM III. Quid sit Ierarchia, et quae per Ierarchiam utilitas.

CAPITULUM IV. Quid significet angelorum cognominatio.

CAPITULUM V. Quare omnes caelestes essentiae communiter angeli dicuntur.

CAPITULUM VI. Quae prima caelestium essentiarum dispositio, quae media, quae ultima.

CAPITULUM VII. De Seraphim et Cherubim et Thronis et de prima eorum Ierarchia.

CAPITULUM VIII. De Dominationibus et Virtutibus et Potestatibus, et de media earum Ierarchia.

CAPITULUM IX. De Principibus et Archangelis et Angelis et de ultimo eorum Ierarchia.

CAPITULUM X. Repetitio et congregatio angelicae ordinationis

CAPITULUM XI. Quare omnes caelestes essentiae communiter Virtutes caelestes vocentur

But after these things have been defined, it is worth understanding why we are accustomed to call all the angelic essences alike heavenly virtues or heavenly powers.

For it must not be said, as in the case of the Angels, that the order of the holy Virtues is the last rank of all, and that the higher ranks participate in the sacred and beautiful illumination of the lower essences, while the last ranks do not in any way participate in the first. Nor should we say that, for this reason, all the divine intellects are called heavenly virtues, while the Seraphim, Thrones, and Dominations are not called so at all.

For the lower properties are participated in by the highest in a universal way. Indeed, the Angels themselves, and before the Angels the Archangels, the Principalities, and the Powers—though ordered by theology after the Virtues—are often commonly called by us, together with the other holy essences, heavenly virtues.

But we say that, when we use the name heavenly virtues commonly of all, we do not introduce any confusion of the proper qualities of each rank. Rather, since all the divine intellects are divided, according to their own supermundane reason, into essence, power, and operation, whenever we call all of them, or some of them, without strict precision, “heavenly essences” or “heavenly virtues,” we must understand that we are signifying periphrastically the beings of whom we speak, either from the essence or from the power proper to each one.

For we must not attach the higher property of the holy Virtues, which we have already carefully distinguished, entirely to the lower essences, thereby reversing the unconfused ordering of the angelic ranks. For according to the account often rightly given by us, the higher ranks abundantly possess also the sacred properties of the lower ranks; but the last ranks do not possess the higher universal excellences of the greater ranks. Rather, the illuminations which first appear in the higher ranks are distributed to the lower ranks proportionately through those first ranks.