EPIGRAM UPON THE BLESSED

DIONYSIUS, CONCERNING THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY

Iambic verses of Christophorus, Patrician and Mitylenaean.

Translated by Petrus Lansselius.

I, Dionysius, dare even to say
That thou wast not fashioned in a woman's womb:
But being most closely joined with the Angels,
Thou camest from above, a foreign nature,
Announcing all things in detail to men
As they are, which are proper to the immaterial ranks;
Thus thou knowest the immaterial essences,
Thus thou contemplatest divine contemplations,
Thus thou contemplatest the natures of the Angels,
Thus, what is greater: thou art an Angel by nature.

To the Same, concerning his own Celestial Hierarchy.

Having attained many splendors of angelic wisdom,
Thou didst show to men that thou hadst seen a star perceived by the mind.

Epigram concerning the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.

The signs of the divine priests, in a uniform discourse,
Thou hast resolved into the unique splendor of the one light.

Epigram to the Blessed Dionysius on the book concerning Divine Names.

With lips inscribed by God, dipped in a shining mind,
Thou dost variously distinguish the beauties endowed with sacred names, even after death,
Chanting God-interpreting hymns with the discourses of living wisdom.

Epigram concerning Mystical Theology.

Thou didst leave behind both the splendid mind and the knowledge of things
In the divine night, which it is unlawful to name.

Another Epigram on the book concerning Mystical Theology.

Thou didst water thy mind, O Dionysius, with the streams of Paul,
And desiring the whole ray of the triple-lighted Divinity,
Thou didst bestow upon men the immortal splendor of the divine name.