Paradiso, Canto 23

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Summary

As Beatrice fixes her gaze in the direction of the zenith, Dante’s eager expectancy is awakened. Before long he sees the heaven brightened by an increased radiance, the light of the saints of the Church Triumphant, among whom, outshining all, is Christ. Glimpsing for an instant the shining substance of Christ’s person, which pierces the swathings of His glory, Dante is at first dazzled and then able to endure the radiance of the smile of Beatrice. His vision thus strengthened, he beholds the lights of the Virgin and the Apostles, the angel who descends to accompany the Virgin on her return to the Empyrean, and the brilliant white radiance of all the other saints assembled before him.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• Why would Dante begin this canto—which takes place close to the boundaries of the created cosmos—with such decidedly rustic and folk images (1-12)? What is Dante trying to say with this juxtaposition of an epic spiritual setting with very ordinary and humble imagery
• How does Dante praise Mary? How might his praise of Mary be a fulfillment of his earlier love poetry? Similarly, how does Dante see Beatrice in this canto? How does his vision of her show us about how heaven transfigures us?
• What does Dante mean when he says his desire finds satisfaction in hope (23.14-15)? How can hope be fulfilling? From where does Christian hope spring? How does this help us better understand Mary, Lucy, and Beatrice’s heavenly intercession in the dark wood of Inferno 1 and 2?
• Why can Dante only bear Beatrice’s smile after he has beheld Christ (23.46-48)? How does Christ not only allow us to see God more truly but to see each other more truly?
• Why would Dante have the Church triumphant use such maternal language when speaking of her (23.121ff)? How does Dante seem to understand the Church’s relationship to Mary?

Paradiso, Canto 23 © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Heaven of the Fixed Stars: See Canto xxii, under Images.

The Church Triumphant: In the Earthly Paradise (Purg. xxix-xxx), Dante beholds the Pageant of the Church Militant, imaged forth in symbols in the very scene of man’s fall. So now, in the Firmament, the highest visible region of the celestial world, he beholds the Church Triumphant, shining in myriad lights all kindled by one Sun. By a rich and lovely image, the redeemed of the Old and New Covenant are called the fruits of the circling spheres. This extends our understanding of the stellar sphere and, indeed, of all the planetary heavens, since all eight circles, operating as the instruments of God, influence men’s souls by the vital powers which are diffused through the stars and planets. (See also Canto ii. 136–8.)

The Vision of Christ: For the second time in Paradise (the first was in the Heaven of Man; cf. Canto xiv) Dante beholds Christ. On this occasion, he glimpses for an instant the unbearable brightness of the shining substance of the Divine Sun who here appears as the means of redemption, the source of glory and Head of the Church Triumphant. Dante’s strengthened vision, which can now sustain the smile of Beatrice, signifies his growing power to apprehend the teaching of the Church concerning man’s redemption through Christ. Her words bidding him turn again to the vision are yet a further reminder (cf. Canto xviii and xxi) that the soul progresses towards God not only through absorption in the ideal and abstract, but also through the facts of history and the reality of life.

The Virgin Mary: This is Dante’s first vision of the Virgin, whom he will later see again, together with all the saints, in her bodily form in the Empyrean (see Cantos xxxii-xxxiii). Here represented as a light of sapphire hue, she signifies the Incarnation, or embodiment of grace.

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