Dante fixes his gaze on Beatrice, but she is not smiling. She explains that her beauty increases as they ascend higher and higher, and if she were to smile now, Dante would be overwhelmed. Dante and Beatrice have now reached the planet Saturn. Dante sees before him a golden ladder ascending far above into the distant heavens. On the rungs of the ladder are a throng of souls making varied motions like birds in the sky.

One of the souls approaches, and Dante asks him why this realm of heaven is silent whereas the previous realms were filled with songs of devotion. He answers that it is for the same reason that Beatrice does not smile: because they are approaching the most sacred regions of heaven, where God dwells. The soul’s light spins like a millstone, and it explains that it is radiating with the joy of the love of God, raising it above itself and allowing it to see “the Highest Essence.”

Dante asks the soul who he is, and he introduces himself as St. Peter Damian (1007-1072), the Benedictine monk who became a reforming bishop and cardinal. Peter recalls his contemplative hermit’s life and bemoans the decline of the cardinal’s office from his day to now.