which, like the parables of our Lord, serve the double purpose of revealing the truth to the holy and
hiding it from the profane. The first and highest triad of the ecclesiastical hierarchy are the sacraments
of baptism which is called illumination (fwvtisma), the eucharist (suvnaxi", gathering, communion),
which is the most sacred of consecrations, and the holy unction or chrism which represents our
perfecting. Three other sacraments are mentioned: the ordination of priests, the consecration of
monks, and the rites of burial, especially the anointing of the dead. The three orders of the ministry
form the second triad.^786 The third triad consists of monks, the holy laity, and the catechumens.
These two hierarchies with their nine-fold orders of heavenly and earthly ministrations are,
so to speak, the machinery of God’s government and of his self-communication to man. They
express the divine law of subordination and mutual dependence of the different ranks of beings.
The Divine Names or attributes, which are the subject of a long treatise, disclose to us
through veils and shadows the fountain-head of all life and light, thought and desire. The goodness,
the beauty, and the loveliness of God shine forth upon all created things, like the rays of the sun,
and attract all to Himself. How then can evil exist? Evil is nothing real and positive, but only a
negation, a defect. Cold is the absence of heat, darkness is the absence of light; so is evil the absence,
of goodness. But how then can God punish evil? For the answer to this question the author refers
to another treatise which is lost.^787
The Mystic Theology briefly shows the way by which the human soul ascends to mystic
union with God as previously set forth under the Divine Names. The soul now rises above signs
and symbols, above earthly conceptions and definitions to the pure knowledge and intuition of
God.
Dionysius distinguishes between cataphatic or affirmative theology)^788 and apophatic ornegative theology.^789 The former descends from the infinite God, as the unity of all names, to the
finite and manifold; the latter ascends from the finite and manifold to God, until it reaches that
height of sublimity where it becomes completely passive, its voice is stilled, and man is united with
the nameless, unspeakable, super-essential Being of Beings.
The ten Letters treat of separate theological or moral topics, and are addressed, four to
Caius, a monk ( ), one to Dorotheus, a deacon ( ), one to Sosipater, a priest ( ), one
to Demophilus, a monk, one to Polycarp (called , no doubt the well-known bishop of Smyrna),
one to Titus ( , bishop of Crete), and the tenth to John, "the theologian," i.e. the Apostle John
at Patmos, foretelling his future release from exile.
Dionysian Legends.
Two legends of the Pseudo-Dionysian writings have passed in exaggerated forms into Latin
Breviaries and other books of devotion. One is his gathering with the apostles around the death-bed
of the Virgin Mary.^790 The other is the exclamation of Dionysius when he witnessed at Heliopolis
786
They are not called bishop, priest, and deacon, butἱεράρχης,ἱερεύς,andλειτουργός. Yet Dionysius writes to Timothy
asπρεσβύτερος τῳ̑ συμπρεσβυτέρῳ.(^787) Περὶ δικαίου και ̀θείου δικαιωτηρίου.
(^788) καταφατικός, affirmative fromκαταφάσκω(κατάφημι), to affirm
(^789) ἀποφατικός, negative, fromἀποφάσκω(ἀπόφημι), to deny.
(^790) See above p. 592, andΠερὶθείωνὀνομάτ.cap. III. 2. (ed. of Migne, I. 682 sq.) Comp. the lengthy discussion of
Baronius, Annal. ad ann. 48. In this connection St. Peter is called by Dionysius
κορυφαίακαὶπρεσβυτάτητω̑νθεολόγωνἀκρότης(suprema ista atque antiquissima summitas theologorum). Corderius (see Migne