Paradiso, Canto 33

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Summary

St Bernard addresses to the Virgin a prayer for intercession for Dante that grace may be granted him to behold God. Conveying her acceptance of the prayer, the Virgin turns her eyes above and Dante, doing likewise, is enabled to penetrate with his vision to the True Light of which all other is the radiance or reflection. Therein he beholds the unity of all creation and all time, the Three Persons (manifested as three spheres), and, finally, Christ, one with the eternal being of Godhead. Here his powers of representation failed him and all that remains is the remembrance of his will and love wholly surrendered to the love of God.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• Why is it fitting that the opening of the 100th canto be an extended prayer?
• How does Bernard’s description of Mary in lines 1-2 both capture and prepare us for the paradoxical nature of Dante’s beatific vision?
• What role does memory play in this final canto? How does the failure of memory indicate the failure of language? What remains when both memory and language fail? How does this tie to Beatrice?
• What are the three visions that Dante sees as he peers into the light of God (82-96; 115-126; 127-132)? Why this progression?
• Why does Dante describe the Trinity as “eternal light, abiding in yourself alone, knowing yourself alone, and known to yourself and knowing, you love and smile upon yourself” (33.126)? Do the smiles in Paradiso take on new meaning as he beholds the Trinity as the love that smiles upon itself?
• Why does Dante describe the mystery of Christ’s incarnation as “our image”? Why not name Christ more specifically?
• Why describe God as “the Love that moves the sun and the other stars”? (145)
• Dante wonders how divinity and humanity can be united in the person of Christ. He has a flash of understanding but he cannot put it into words. Rather than explaining his insight, Dante talks about the effect his understanding has on his will and desire (moving them in a circle) and then ends the poem. Why does Dante end the poem so abruptly? Why retreat into silence after such a long journey?
• How might we understand the silence of the poem’s end as, in Vittorio Montemaggi’s words, “the most truthful statement” of the Comedy?

Paradiso, Canto 33 © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Prayer to the Virgin: In his prayer to the Virgin, St Bernard implores her to intercede for Dante that he may attain, now, to the vision of God and that, in his life henceforth, he may, under her protection, persevere in truth and righteousness, his affections and human impulses guarded from unworthiness. The prayer is also a hymn of praise to the Virgin. St Bernard, in life the most ardent worshipper in the Virgin-cult, now extols her as excelling all creatures, angelic or human, in lowliness, goodness, and vision. On earth, the historical and universal God-bearer, the vessel of Divine Grace, now, in Heaven, she is the one mediator to whom man must turn in prayer. In the story, the Virgin, from the very beginning, is the gentle Lady who is so moved to pity on Dante’s account that for her sake “high doom is cancelled” (Inf. ii. 94–6). She it is who summons Lucy to her side, exhorting her: “Thy faithful votary needs thee, and I commend him to thy care”; and Lucy, in her turn, appeals to Beatrice, who swiftly seeks the aid of Virgil, who, alone, at this stage, can speak to, and be heard by, Dante. Now the story has come full circle. Grace, in its various manifestations, has brought Dante from the depths of Hell up to this height. As St Bernard prays for the Virgin’s supreme intercession. all the saints, and Beatrice among them, fold their hands in the vast fellowship of prayer — prayer for one man’s need.

The Vision of God: The final vision, the crown and climax of the whole work, consists of two revelations. First, Dante perceives in the Divine Light the form, or exemplar, of all creation. All things that exist in themselves (“substance”), all aspects or properties of being (“accident”), all mutual relations (“mode”) are seen bound together in one single concept. The Universe is in God. Next, having glimpsed the whole of creation, Dante beholds the Creator. He sees three circles, of three colours, yet of one dimension. One seems to be reflected from the other, and the third, like flame, proceeds equally from both (the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). Then, as he gazes, the reflected circle shows within itself the human form, coloured with the circle’s own hue. As Dante strives to comprehend how human nature is united with the Word, a ray of divine light so floods his mind that his desire is at rest. At this point the vision ceases, and the story ends with the poet’s will and desire moving in perfect co-ordination with the love of God.

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