According to some, Hierotheos, like Saint Dionysios, was a member of the court of Mars Hill. Having first been instructed in the Faith of Christ by Paul, he became Bishop of Athens. He, in turn, initiated the divine Dionysios more perfectly into the mysteries of Christ; the latter, on his part, elaborated more clearly and distinctly Hierotheos’ concise and summary teachings concerning the Faith. He too was brought miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit to be present at the Dormition of the Theotokos, when, together with the sacred Apostles, he became a leader of the divine hymnody. “He was wholly transported, wholly outside himself and was so deeply absorbed in communion with the sacred things he celebrated in hymnology, that to all who heard him and saw him and knew him, and yet knew him not, he seemed to be inspired of God, a divine hymnographer,” as Dionysios says (On the Divine Names, 3:2). Having lived in a manner pleasing to God, he reposed in the Lord.
Reading copyright Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA, used by permission. All rights reserved.
