Word for the Council of Heavenly Officials

St. Theodore the Studite is the author of an extensive book of praise (πανηγυρική βίβλος). Only 12 sermons from this collection have survived to this day, including the “Word to the Council of Heavenly Orders” (13 chapters). Presumably, the treatise was written to denounce the iconoclasts who rebelled against the depiction of angels on icons. The essay is dogmatic in nature. In it, the author sets out the doctrine of the world of angels. The text reveals in detail the nature, ministry and hierarchy of angels - “quick and zealous intercessors with God”, “unslothful and tireless intercessors of people”, true mediators between God and people. The treatise examines various manifestations of angels: from the guardians of individual souls and nations to the rulers of the earthly world and performers of Divine secrets. The Word is replete with numerous references to the Old and New Testaments, giving examples of their participation in key events of sacred history: from protecting the tree of life and apparitions to the patriarchs to their service to Christ during His Nativity, Baptism, in the desert and at the life-giving Tomb. The author provides an interpretation of the visions of the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel about various images of angels (six-winged, many-eyed, four-faced), explaining their symbolic meaning and connection with the mystery of the Incarnation. Particular attention is paid to the 9 angelic ranks (angels, archangels, principalities, authorities, powers, thrones, dominions, seraphim, cherubim), revealing the etymology and meaning of each name. The work ends with an indication of the 10th angelic rank - man (according to the Savior's parable about the 10 drachmas). 1. We are surrounded by the trumpets of intelligent archangels and illuminated by the beauty of divine sacred services; the faces of silent chanters gathered us to stay awake in song, and the armies of ethereal beings formed a choir with the fleshly ones. The leader of the heavenly ones now rules over the earthly ones in the same church. Who exactly? - This is Michael, by the grace of God, both shining himself and being the mediator of divine radiances for mortals. In the original revelations of God, people were given the most just divine laws, according to which those who receive the most benefits should not remain forgetful and ungrateful in relation to their patrons, but glorify their mercies as much as possible. Our quick and zealous intercessors before God, non-lazy and tireless intercessors of people, are human-loving angels who receive the gift of human love from the human-loving Lord, initially mutually enlightened by light from the uncreated Light. They are the true mediators of mortals before God; they are gods, by divinity from God, but not by nature; they are free citizens of the highest city of freedom, which is Jerusalem, the mother of all free in Christ; they are animated and spiritual fire, the rational flame of God; they are bright, highest and exalted eternal mountains: through them the Lord wonderfully enlightens us from the eternal mountains (cf. Ps. 71:5); they are the speedy gatekeepers of heavenly villages and abodes. “If Thy village is beloved, O Lord of hosts. Our soul desires and ends in Thy courts, O Lord. Therefore, the light of “rejoicing and salvation in the angelic abodes of the righteous” (Ps. 118:15). In the voice of joy and confession, the noise of the celebration, in the place of the settlement there is a wonder even to the house of God (Ps. 41:5), “all His angels, mighty in strength, doing His word” ( Ps.103:20) There is a peaceful and serene simplicity of life, there (God) “is great and terrible above all those around Him” (Ps.89:8). There is a mysterious silence of solemn hymns; there is an indescribable performance of the most holy hymns; there is the invisible divine radiance of unspoken and great praises; there is the non-evening light, enlightening the waking eyes of the disembodied (spirits); there, in this house of God, is the assembly of the stars, i.e. angelic forces working together for our good, constantly sent by God to serve us for the sake of those who inherit salvation. 2. These disembodied angelic forces, immortal armies, servants and co-workers of God have different positions, different names, unequal dignity, but one nature, which has diverse manifestations: there are orders that sing songs and guard the heavens, direct servants of God; there are internal ranks and external ranks, which are also called the gates of heaven; there are higher ranks and lower ranks, which once said to the higher ones: “Take up your gates, O princes” (Ps. 23:7); There are ranks that send and those sent, ranks that lead and those that are secretly led. Different angels have different ministries. There are angels who fly through the air and save the souls of saints from air spirits. Denoting this, Patriarch Jacob said while dying: “An angel like him delivers me from all evils” (Gen. 48:16). In the same way, the management of the earthly world is entrusted to the angels, who, at the command of God, carry out the plans of Providence. Every believing soul is also given by God an angel to protect and protect her. For the Scripture says: “Do not let your feet fall into confusion; keep you from slumbering” (Ps. 121:3). And again: “Be careful that you do not despise one of these little ones: for I say to you, for their angels have seen the face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). And not only is every pious soul given an angel from God, but also every individual believing nation is given a guardian angel. For the Scripture says: “set the boundaries of the tongues according to the number of the angels of God” (Deut. 32:8). Through heavenly angels the revelation of the mysteries of God takes place on earth; through angels - the protection of waters and springs and the healing that occurs from them; through angels deliverance of the worthy from temptations. For the Scripture says: “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him, and will deliver them” (Ps. 33:8). Through angels - the preservation of the remains of martyrs: “The Lord preserves all their bones” (Ps. 33:21), although the speech here about bones is mysterious. Through angels the altars of God and the churches of the faithful are guarded; Through angels, prayers and supplications ascend from earth to heaven to God, just as divine gifts are brought from there to people - and in general, every sacrament of God on earth is performed through angels. 3. Thus, once upon a time God actually placed cherubim to guard the tree of life, which had become inaccessible to the unworthy. He appeared to Abraham, sending to him in the form of men the face of three angels, depicting the thrice-holy mystery of the Trinity, and then he revealed two of this angelic trinity to Lot in Gomorrah and, through the punishment of the local inhabitants, showed that the Father does not judge anyone, but gave all judgment to the Son, with whom the Holy Spirit is substantially present. And a fighting angel appeared to Jacob as a sign of the law spoken through the angels. And to the great Moses, in the flame of fire, a fiery stream of angels appeared, unharmed, scorching the green bush and prefiguring the unmerged (in Christ) unity of God with the nature of people, bringing the thorns of sin. Through the angels, also under Moses, with a quick hand without a sword, imperceptibly, at night, the firstborn of Pharaoh were destroyed, and the Jewish people were preserved unharmed. The hands of angels were also tied, as if by some kind of rope, in the depths of the sea, the wheels of the chariots (of Pharaoh) with the tristate horsemen: that is why, when the wicked saw these angelic forces drowning them, they said: “We are fleeing from the face of Israel, for the Lord will fight against them against the Egyptians” (Ex. 14:25). And again after this, the true leader of the people, like Christ, appeared in the pillar of cloud, the angel of God, whose beauty of the face, which had the appearance of a cloud, showed the people places of stops and stops. Then, when those to whom the law was given came to the mountain of legislation, they received the God-written tablets through many angels: some blew trumpets, others surrounded the mountain with fire, and others, in thunder, lightning and storm, enveloped it in smoke in order to frighten the people who were sick from the lack of fear of God. Subsequently, also through an angel, Joshua announced the victory over the Philistines. But in order to honor the feast of the archangel by mentioning a larger number of angels (for I believe that they always rejoice together with their archangel), let us also say about how an angel once in Jerusalem destroyed Israel, until the great David slaughtered oxen on the threshing floor of Zion and burned them as a sacrifice in the fire from burnt carts and ox harnesses (2 Samuel 24:22-25), and so thus ended the defeat of the people. What thought does this phenomenon inspire in us and what does it teach us? – Because one sacrifice of Christ, made by Him on the tree of the cross, tames the wrath of God against the universe; for here He appeared as the great Phinehas (zealot), offered Himself as propitiation for us, and through this the disaster ceased. 4. Since in our discussion of angels we have the archangel as our leader, we need to consider why angels, being of the same nature, do not appear to people on earth with the same appearance and not in the same image; but appear in the form of youths, and warriors, and horses, and six-winged and many-eyed animals, and lions, and calves, and eagles, and fiery horses, and wheels, and chariots? So, the wondrous Isaiah, who saw the divine and terrible throne on which the God of all sat, says that around Him stood the forces of the highest angels and cherubim ranks, in the form of six-winged (animals): with two wings they covered their faces, with the other two they covered their legs, and with two they flew; the upper and lower closed parts of the body obviously mean that the mystery of the Divine remains invisible, and hidden, and hidden both for the highest heavenly beings and for the lower earthly ones. Or, perhaps, they covered their faces and legs in order to teach us that it is equally incomprehensible both what happened before the descent of Christ God the Word from heaven and what happened after His ascension; By the same mysteries that were revealed in His incarnation, the believing church, like wings, ascends to heaven. Likewise, through hiding their faces and feet, the holy cherubim hint that neither the beginning nor the end of the divine nature can be seen, studied, or understood - namely: hiding the face means the invisibility of the uncreated nature, and hiding the feet means its inaccessibility. 5. Then the divine prophet, who saw this, says that the house was filled with the glory of God. “God was known (then) in Judah, and in Israel (only) his great name” (Ps. 75:2). But at the same time, intelligent forces also know the mystery of the incarnation of God the Word Himself, seated on the throne. And since He was to appear to people on earth as a man, the Bodiless was to become incarnate, the Invisible even to the bodiless was to become bodily visible and fleshly, and fill the whole earth with glory, praise and grace with His grace: then the angels, amazed by the unexpected and incomprehensible condescension of God and surprised by the ineffable revelation of His people, sang a song of thanksgiving and amazement, crying: “Holy, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is filled with His glory” (Is. 6:3), - and thus the most blessed seraphim foreshadowed the future Glory of the churches, i.e. Christ. Therefore it is said that the whole earth is full of His glory. And look what happens: “and the door was taken away (says the Scripture) from the voice,” i.e., the fences and cover that had guarded the Jewish church and people from above were taken away, “and the house was filled with smoke” (Is. 6:4), i.e. desolation and darkness, delusion and ignorance. Listen diligently, I pray you: at a time when the whole earth was ingloriously in error and ignorance, the house of the Jewish church was full of glory: when the whole earth was filled with the glory and knowledge of God, then the house (of Israel) was filled with smoke, since the lamp of the law went out for the Jews, so that, according to the word of Christ, we who do not see may see, but the Jews who see become blind. Still Isaiah. 6. Ezekiel, who had a mind capable of divine visions like no one else, saw the highest disembodied angels in the form of not only two-faced, but also four-faced animals, which clearly represent, I think, the mystery of the incarnation of Emmanuel from the Virgin. The animals looked like a man and a calf, and a lion, and an eagle - above. For Christ came to earth truly as a man, true God and true man; He appeared like a calf to be slain for the salvation of the world: like a lion, He rose from the dead by His power; like an eagle, he ascended to heaven. You can also understand the species of animals in relation to Christ: the species of man designates Him as the word and image of the invisible God, for the sake of the rational and invisible power of His soul and mind; the appearance of a calf indicates in Him a strong bishop, bearing the yoke of the law, and who once reclined in the manger of Bethlehem, like us foolish ones, and who sowed the seed of the gospel word in the universe; the appearance of a lion points to Him as the king of us all, who were once wild, rude, bloodthirsty, carnivorous and unclean pagans. For the Scripture says: “God reigns over the tongues” (Ps. 46:9). And Christ is not only a lion, but also a tabernacle of a lion, as Jacob speaks of him (Gen. 49:9), i.e. Son of the King, descended from the royal Father. Therefore, further, He is also an eagle, as the king of the feathered and winged heavenly creatures, i.e. holy intelligent angelic forces - feathered because, like us, the chicks of Christ, they are protected and nourished by God, - winged because they are mobile and rise above everything earthly, - winged because they constantly fly at the height of divine love. The Prophet also calls them many-eyed, because they are illuminated by abundant divine light and are not obscured by anything earthly to the contemplation of God. Therefore, they are also called spirits, as beings that are immaterial, immaterial, intangible, immortal, having no volume, airless and, by the grace of God, incorruptible and unharmed. 7. May the angel convince you of this, who came to the friends of Azariah in the form of the Lord, blazing with fire, quenching the (Babylonian) furnace, emitting flames that brought dew, not fire. And what is most amazing here is that those who were engulfed in flames inside the oven, as if in the womb, were made unharmed by the angel, and the wicked who stood around, being untouchable, were destroyed. This is the omnipotent property of the divine power of an angel, which is so strong that it can destroy the whole world in the blink of an eye. This is evidenced by the destructive plague that occurred among the Chaldeans under Sennacherib and destroyed one hundred eighty-five thousand people through an angel at night, without noise or sword. Let us pray to the Lord that she will now appear among the current Chaldeans (Mohammedans). And the prophet Habakkuk, earthly and clothed with flesh, was easily transported by an incorporeal angel from the borders of Jerusalem to Babylon, when he was carrying food to the prophet Daniel, who was kept in the lion’s den: he entered there and came out unharmed, keeping the seals over the ditch intact, as a sign of the tomb of Christ. Like Christ from the death of hell, the prophet also rose, getting rid of the bloodthirsty beasts and sending to hell those who had (previously) brought him down to hell. And as in relation to the Chaldeans, so here too the impartial judgment of the Lord’s definition was carried out, “who makes angels his spirits and his servants a flame of fire” (Ps. 103:4): this is how the blessed angels are called in the Holy Scriptures because, I think, they cleanse people from passions, burn and punish the enemies of God and impart light to unenlightened people. 8. Further, angels appear in the form of horses, as Zechariah says, because everything divine is fleeting. They also appear in the form of chariots, because they go around the heavenly spheres and live there. For the Scripture says: “The voice of Your thunder is in the wheel” (Ps. 76:19). Therefore Elijah the Tishbite was lifted up from the earth in a chariot of fire. This prototype is clear: it means harnessed by fours, i.e. composed of four elements, the chariot of our nature, from which God the Word ascended to heaven, carrying it and controlling it according to His will. The horses of the royal chariots are the image of the holy angels. “The chariot of God is in darkness; there are thousands of them eating goblets” and celebrating (Ps. 67:18). And Daniel saw in a vision a humanoid man sitting on a throne, God, “Old of days. And a thousand thousand served Him, and these stood before Him” (Dan. 7:9-10). But all this and similar things are depicted in the Old Testament, as if in visions and revelations, for neither the essence of God, nor His form, nor the image, nor the appearance, nor the beauty of Him has ever been seen by anyone clothed with flesh, and cannot see, as the Holy Scripture teaches us. But no one has seen and cannot see the creatures of angels either. 9 . But let us move from the canopy (Old Testament) to the New Testament and consider more clearly the ministry of angels. So, once upon a time Gabriel, the leader of the choir of angels, and the head of the highest council of chosen disembodied servants, the mysterious messenger of God’s ineffable mysteries to people, a god-like servant, a messenger of joy for mortals, appeared to the immaculate Virgin. He went in to her and revealed his natural image to the Most Holy One, as it is. For, as they say, it was given to the Most Holy Mother of God alone to see the angelic nature as it really is, as it was created, so that by the beauty of the creature she could admire the beauty of the Lord. Therefore, the archangel, at the command of God, entered the Virgin, showed her his inexplicable beauty and the appearance of the brightest rays of the sun, and through this he imperceptibly revealed to the Immaculate the purest quality of her own image. And she saw a form that is a reflection of a small and invisible outflow (of God), saw a beauty that is higher than the most excellent beauty, saw a strange and extraordinary radiance of beauty, saw the radiance of an ethereal being that surpasses the sun, saw the eternal ray of the intelligent star, saw the spiritual flame, the sparkling brilliance of the intelligent light. The Most Pure Virgin perceived a non-immaterial angelic vision and appearance, seeing something that had not yet been revealed to anyone. 10. And Zechariah was struck dumb because he did not believe the holy angel. For, since from him the Forerunner of the true Light, John, was to be born, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Is. 40:3), i.e. to us, who make up the church of the pagans, a voice speaks of the decay of the law: then he, his father, who is a prototype of the law, gives birth to John six months before Christ. “Without that light” (John 1:8), and therefore Zechariah six months (before the birth of the Light) receives a son, John. After him, Christ was born as a certain seventh day, for He truly is our mysterious Sabbath rest, which God blessed and sanctified, since in this rest He rested from all His works. And Christ is the truly true archangel of the great council of the Father, and the Lord God of hosts Himself. Therefore, in the economy of the incarnation, holy and humane-loving angels submit to Him, as the humane-loving Lord, and work in every possible way and in every place. During His birth according to the flesh, angels appeared to the shepherds with the first message and announced to them about the birth of Christ in the manger of Bethlehem. Struck by the great and wondrous mystery of His incarnation in poverty, they immediately solemnly and brightly sang: “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14). Further, the angel, having transformed into a star, like some kind of heavenly light, shows the wise men the way and calls them to the path that says about Himself: “I am the way” (John 14:6). And then, after the departure of the Magi, the angel again gives instructions that Joseph with his Mother and Jesus should retire to Egypt. And so, God hastily departed from mortals - according to the economy, i.e. not because He (the Judge of mortals) was afraid of a mortal, but to show you an image and an example, and so that everyone would know when to be afraid and when to be courageous. And the service of the angels to their Lord extended not only to Egypt, for the angel also revealed to Joseph the time of his exit from Egypt. 11. What's next? – And we find something else about angels. Angels appeared to Christ after baptism to serve Him in the desert - and this is not because they ever departed from their Lord, but so that you, a believer, are convinced that everyone who is baptized and remains pure receives invisible angels who serve and protect him. That is why, in the sheep’s font, the angel performed healing, prefiguring baptism: in it, of great counsel, the Angel, Christ, granted healing to a thirty-year-old paralytic, who was thus baptized at thirty-eight years old and miraculously healed his five senses by faith in the Holy Trinity. But we almost passed over in silence what is most important and most amazing in the sacred stories about angels. This is precisely the story of those extraordinary and diverse angels at the life-giving tomb of Christ, whose speeches and miracles in this place were truly strange and indescribable. Pay attention here, first of all, to how all the people loved by Christ run here, talk, and the higher powers sit calmly. For behold, Peter stood up and ran to the tomb, and the other disciple ran faster than Peter. And Mary Magdalene runs and comes to Simon Peter. And the other Marys ran to tell the disciples (about the resurrection), and those about whom Mark narrates hastily left the tomb. And the angels sitting here appear in the form of not running, but sitting - one at the head, the other at the feet, where the Body of Jesus lay, and some inside, and others outside on the stone. 12. What does all this teach us? - Because the earth-born, completely unaware of the divine mysteries, rightly run, as Paul said about them - they run to receive a reward, for the runner runs to the desired goal, and about the all-holy angels it is said that they sat in the tomb, since they already knew the divine secrets of the resurrection: and one sat at the head, perhaps, as a messenger of the highest sacraments, and the other at the feet, as the performer of some lower sacraments and ministries: and some inside the tomb, as contemplating the innermost miracles of the Divine, while others outside, perhaps, as preaching the miracle of the incarnation of Christ: and again - one sat on the right side, being the mentor of pious souls who are at the right hand of God. But they also appeared in the form of beautiful young men alien to illness, old age and decay, signifying with their youthful beauty their firm and virtuous love for God. That is why they also appear in light clothes, in order to show through this both the bright, pure and worthy of love image of the resurrection of Christ, and at the same time purity, dispassion and sinlessness, due to the grace of God inherent in them, their nature. For since angel means the second light, the light below the first, which is the light of lights, then for this reason the all-holy lights (angels) appear to worthy people in clothes shining like lightning and like snow. They have neither color nor body: they have neither wings, nor arms with elbows, nor heads with hair, nor a straight figure, nor anything at all that relates to what is contemplated or moves in material nature. If it is said that they appear in divine visions in human form, then we do not consider the names they acquire to be indicators of their nature; they received these names from God and from theologizing men to designate their own actions. That's how it should be. For let us consider the following. They are called - angels, because they proclaim divine definitions to people and bring them to earth from another world: archangels, - so that you learn that among people there must be order and improvement, the image of which is the church: they are also called principles, as leaders of the lower ranks for teaching and enlightenment: authorities - as invested with royal and lordly dignity; strength - as strangers by grace to all weakness and the sufferings of death; thrones, - since God, as on a throne, rests in their affairs and service; dominions - as those assigned by God to the human race for care of it, salvation and guidance, and as those ruling by the grace of God over any generally passionate movement or temptation to fall; seraphim (this word in Hebrew means burning) - as beings who cleanse and enlighten others. The highest and closest angels to God are called cherubim, and this word means completeness of knowledge. 13. This is what the Archangel of the Angels has now inspired us to say about the angels. These are the nine orders of ethereal forces. And the tenth rank is man. For Christ speaks of ten ranks or drachmas: “What woman, having ten drachmas, if she loses one drachma, does not she burn a lamp, and sweep the church, and search diligently until she finds it? And having found it, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, for you have found the lost coin” (Luke 15:8-9). Or what does one lost sheep mean out of ninety-nine that did not go astray, which the good and humane shepherd did not despise, but sought and found her in the mountains and on the hills of Hellenic evils wandering and serving idols, turned her, took her on his shoulders, carried her up to heaven, added the stray one to the flock that did not go astray and awarded her the eternal kingdom, which we will achieve and we all, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, also to the Holy, Life-Giving, Consubstantial Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: