A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

617the sacred mysteries all those who have been initiated by thedivine order of the hierarchs and with that order performs itsproper sacred functions. In what it does it displays the divineworking through the most holy symbols [i.e., sacraments] andmakes those who approach beholders and participants in the mostholy mysteries, sending on to the hierarch those who desire theknowledge of those sacred rites which are seen. The order ofthe liturges [or deacons] is that which cleanses and separates theunlike before they come to the sacred rites of the priests, purifies [564]those who approach that it may render them pure from all thatis opposing and unworthy of beholding and participating in thesacred mysteries.(e) De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia, I, 3. (MSG, 3:373.)The sacraments.The mysteries or sacraments, according to Dionysius the Areopagite,are six in number: baptism, the eucharist, anointingor confirmation, the consecration of priests, the consecrationof monks, 211 and the consecration of the dead. These hediscusses in chs. 2-7 of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.Salvation can in no other way come about than that the saved aredeified. The deification is the highest possible resemblance toGod and union with Him. The common aim of all the hierarchyis the love which hangs upon God and things divine, which fillswith a divine spirit and works in godlike fashion; and before thisis the complete and never retreating flight from that which isopposed to it, the knowledge of being as being, the vision andknowledge of the holy truth, the divinely inspired participationin the homogeneous perfection of the One himself, so far as man211 The highest order of all the consecrated orders is the holy order of monks.