Word of the Day: Seraphim

SERAPHIM. Angels composing the highest choir of the angelic kingdom. The root meaning of their name is "to consume with fire," indicating their intense love of the Holy Trinity. (Etym. Hebrew saraf plural serafim, burning, glowing.) From Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, on the nature of Seraphim: The name "Seraphim" does not come from charity only, but from the excess of charity, expressed by the word ardour or fire. Hence Dionysius (De Coelesti Hierarchia,  vii) expounds the name "Seraphim" according to the properties of fire, containing an excess of heat. Now in fire we may consider three things. First, the movement which is upwards and continuous. This signifies that they are borne inflexibly towards God. Secondly, the active force which is "heat," which is not found in fire simply, but exists with a certain sharpness, as being of most penetrating action, and reaching even to the smallest things, and as it were, with superabundant fervour; whereby is signified the action of these angels, exercised powerfully upon those who are subject to them, rousing them to a like fervour, and cleansing them wholly by their heat. Thirdly we consider in fire the quality of clarity, or brightness; which signifies that these angels have in themselves an inextinguishable light, and that they also perfectly enlighten others.