3. The imposition of hands by the
hierarch demonstrates that those being consecrated receive their attributes and
powers, together with their freedom from opposing powers, from the covering who
is the source of every consecration. They are like sacred children cared for by
their father. The rite also teaches them to do all their clerical work as if
they were acting on the orders of God and have him as guide in all their
activities.
. . .
5. The sacred announcement by the
hierarch concerning the rites of consecration and those being consecrated
denotes the mystery that the performer of consecration in his love of God is
the exponent of the choice of the divinity, that it is not by virtue of any
personal worth that he summons those about to be consecrated but rather that it
is God himself who inspires him in every hierarchic sanctification. Thus Moses,
the consecrator in the hierarchy of the Law, did not confer a clerical
consecration on Aaron who was his brother, whom he knew to be a friend of God
and worthy of the priesthood, until God himself commanded him to do so, thereby
permitting him to bestow, in the name of God who is the source of all
consecration, the fullness of a clerical consecration. And yet our own first
and divine consecrator—for Jesus in his endless love for us took on this
task—“did not exalt himself,” as scripture declares. Rather, the consecrator
was the one “who said to him: . . . ‘Thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek.’” Furthermore, when he bestowed sacred consecration on his own
disciples, even though as God he was the source of every consecration, still in
hierarchic fashion he referred this act of consecration to this most holy
Father and to the Divine Spirit. As scripture shows, he told his disciples “not
to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father which ‘you
heard from me, . . . you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’” Similarly,
when the chief of the disciples gathered around him his peers the ten hierarchs
so as to consecrate a twelfth disciple, he wisely left the choice to the
divinity, saying “Show whom you have chosen.” He welcomed as a hierarch in the
assembly of the twelve the one designated by divine choice. And what of the
divine choice which fell on Matthias? There are many explanations of this which
I find unsatisfactory and so I will set down here what I myself think of it. It
seems to be that what scripture means by “choice” of the divinity is a certain
gift revealing to the assembly of hierarchs the one selected by God, since it
is not by his own personal activity that a divine hierarch should work
sacerdotal consecration. Rather, it is under God’s impulse that he should
perform these sacred rites in a way that is hierarchic and heavenly. (The
Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, 5.3.3, 5 in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works [trans.
Colm Luibheid; The Classics of Western Spirituality; New York: Paulist Press,
1987], 240, 241)
Commenting
on Dionysius’ theology of holy orders/the priesthood, Anthony Pavoni and Evangelos
Nikitopoulos (who themselves believe the writings of “Pseudo-Dionysius” are
actually that of Dionysius himself), wrote:
Clerical and Lay Orders
Dionysius speaks of the orders of
hierarchs (ιεραρχαι), priests (ιερεις), and attendants (λειτουργοι). The hierarchs represent the high grade in
the church, imparting grace to all the lower orders through teaching and the
laying of hands; the priests are responsible for the administration of the
sacraments; and the attendants perform various ancillary functions like reading
from Scripture, guarding the doors of the temple, and preparing candidates for
baptism. (See Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 1.2, 2.2.6, 3.2, 4.3.1-2, 5.1.5,
5.3.1) All three of these orders can be found in Apostolic witnesses. Although
the names used in these sources are sometimes different, the functions assigned
to them are substantially the same as we find in Dionysius.
The first class, that of hierarchs,
appears in the Book of Acts and in the Pauline Epistles where they are
variously called “overseers,” (Acts 20:28) “elders,” (Acts 21:18) and
“bishops,” (Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:7; 1 Timothy 3:1) and are described as having
the power of ordination. (1 Timothy 4:4: “Neglect not the gift that is in
three, which was given by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the
presbytery.”) Saint Ignatius of Antioch writes: “Wherever the bishop shall
appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Christ is, there is
the Catholic church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or
to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also
pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.” (Epistle
to the Smyrnaeans, section 8) The second-century moralizing text known as
the Shepherd of Hermas speaks of bishops as the foundation-stones of the
Church. (Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3, Section 5.1) As for the laying of
hands, it is a well-attested ancient practice referred to in the Old Testament,
(Deuteronomy 34:9: “And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom;
for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened
unto him”) the Book of Acts (Acts 6:6), and the Epistles of Saint Paul. (1
Timothy 4:14, cited above)
The word priest (ιερευς) occurs many times in the New Testament with
reference to those who perform the Temple sacrifices. Saint Paul calls Christ
“a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,” (Hebrews 5:6, 6:20, 7:17,
quoting Psalm 109:4. Melchizedek was the priest-king in the Old Testament who
offered Abraham bread and wine, foreshadowing the sacrament of the Eucharist
that Christ told his disciples to perform “in remembrance of [him].” [Luke
22:19]) while Saint Peter calls believers “a royal priesthood.” (1 Peter 2:9)
The early third-century text Refutation of All Heresies refers to the
Apostles as “high priests.” (Refutation of All Heresies, Book I,
Prologue) In addition, the New Testament employs the term “presbyters” to
designate a special class of men who administer the sacraments. For instance,
Saint James writes: “is any sick among you? Let him call for the presbyters of
the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of
the Lord.” (James 5:14) All these features correspond quite closely with the
description of priests one encounters in the Dionysian writings.
A third order that appears in the New
Testament, mirroring Dionysius’ rank of “attendants,” is that of deacons (διακονοι). In the Book of Acts, the Apostles ordain
“seven men of honest report” to minister (διακονειν) to the material needs of the congregation.
(Acts 6:2-6) In his First Epistle to Timothy, Saint Paul says, “Likewise must
the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of
filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let
these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being
found blameless.” (1 Timothy 3:8-10) Saint Justin Martyr (c. 100-165) relates
that deacons were responsible for distributing holy bread and wine to the
faithful who were absent from the liturgy. (First Apology, ch. 65) This
ministry is similar to the kinds of tasks that attendants perform in the
Areopagitic corpus, namely assisting the priests during the various services.
In addition to the clerical orders,
Dionysius mentions certain distinct groups among the laity, among catechumens,
energumens, and penitents. The first are those who live as Christians but are
not yet baptized; the second are individuals possessed by unclean spirits; and
the third are baptized Christians who are excluded from the mysteries for
having committed various sins. (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 3.3.6-7) These
three groups also appear in ancient sources: the verb “to catechize” occurs in
Saint Paul; (Galatians 6:6: “Let him that is catechized in the word
communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.”) Saint Justin Martyr
describes a special class of people being prepared for baptism by prayer and
fasting (First Apology, ch. 61: “As many as are persuaded and believe
that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live
accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for
the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them.
Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the
same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated”); and the Apostolic
Tradition describes the order of catechumens at length. (Apostolic
Tradition, Chapters 17-20) As for the energumens, the Book of Acts records
that the faithful would bring their possessed before the Apostles to be cured
of unclean spirits; (Acts 5:16) the Apostolic Tradition states that such
individuals were excluded from hearing the Gospel; (Apostolic Tradition,
15:8: “If there is someone who has a demon, such a one shall not heard the
word of the teacher until purified”) and the seventeenth canon of the
Council of Ancyra (A.D. 314) allots them a special space of prayer. (Council of
Ancyra, Canon 17: “Differs of themselves with beasts . . . the holy Synod
commands to pray among the sufferers.” The ancient scholiast to this
canon identifies the “sufferers” with the possessed) Finally, the exclusion of
penitents, from communion is mentioned by Tertullian (On Modesty, ch.
18: “Communion is indeed denied to sinners, very especially such as had
been polluted by the flesh, but only or the present; to be restored, to wit, as
the result of penitential suing.”), Eusebius, (Ecclesiastical History
6.34), and Saint Basil. (Canon 56, from Letter 217 [To Amphilochius]:
“he who has committed voluntary murder and afterwards has repented shall not
partake of the sacraments for twenty years. And the twenty years shall be
divided thus in his case. For four years he ought to weep as a penitent of
the first degree, standing outside the door of the house of prayer and
asking the faithful who enter to pray for him, confessing his transgression”) (Anthony
Pavoni and Evangelos Nikitopoulos, The Life of Saint Dionysius the
Areopagite [Montreal, Quebec: Scriptorium Press, 2023], 34-37)