Christian

St. Denis



Bishop of Paris, and martyr. Born in Italy, nothing is definitely known
of the time or place, or of his early life. His feast is kept on 9
October. He is usually represented with his head in his hands because,
according to the legend, after his execution the corpse rose again and
carried the head for some distance. That, however, while still very
young he was distinguished for his virtuous life, knowledge of sacred
things, and firm faith, is proved by the fact that Pope Fabian
(236-250) sent him with some other missionary bishops to Gaul on a
difficult mission. The Church of Gaul had suffered terribly under the
persecution of the Emperor Decius and the new messengers of Faith were
to endeavour to restore it to its former flourishing condition. Denis
with his inseparable companions, the priest Rusticus and the deacon
Eleutherius, arrived in the neighbourhood of the present city of Paris
and settled on the island in the Seine. The earliest document giving an
account of his labours and of his martyrdom (Passio SS. Dionsyii,
Rustici et Eleutherii), dating from the end of the sixth or the
beginning of the seventh century and wrongly attributed to the poet
Venantius Fortunatus, is interwoven with much legend, from which,
however, the following facts can be gleaned.



On the island in the Seine Denis built a church and provided for a
regular solemnization of the Divine service. His fearless and
indefatigable preaching of the Gospel led to countless conversions.
This aroused the envy, anger and hatred of the heathen priests. They
incited the populace against the strangers and importuned the governor
Fescenninus Sisinnius to put a stop by force to the new teaching. Denis
with his two companions were seized and as they persevered in their
faith were beheaded (about 275) after many tortures. Later accounts
give a detailed description of the confessors' sufferings. They were
scourged, imprisoned, racked, thrown to wild beasts, burnt at the
stake, and finally beheaded. Gregory of Tours simply states: "Beatus
Dionysius Parisiorum episcopus diversis pro Christi nomine adfectus
poenis praesentem vitam gladio immente finivit" (Hist. Franc. I, 30).
The bodies of the three holy martyrs received an honourable burial
through the efforts of a pious matron named Catulla and a small shrine
was erected over their graves. This was later on replaced by a
beautiful basilica (egregium templum) which Venantius celebrated in
verse (Carm. I, ii).



From the reign of King Dagobert (622-638) the church and the
Benedictine monastery attached to it were more and more beautifully
adorned; the veneration of St. Denis became by degrees a national
devotion, rulers and princes vying with one another to promote it. This
development is due in no small degree to an error prevailing throughout
the Middle Ages, which identified St. Denis of Paris with St. Dionysius
the Areopagite, and with the Pseudo-Dionysius, the composer of the
Areopagitic writings. The combining of these three persons in one was
doubtless effected as early as the eighth or perhaps the seventh
century, but it was only through the "Areopagitica" written in 836 by
Hilduin, Abbot of Saint-Denis, at the request of Louis the Pious, that
this serious error took deep root. The investigations of Launoy first
threw doubt on the story and the Bollandist de Bye entirely rejected
it. Hilduin was probably deceived by the same apocryphal Latin and
Greek fictions. The possession of the Areopagitic writings (since 827
in Saint-Denis) strengthened his conviction of this truth.
Historiographers of the present day do not dispute this point. All
attempts of Darras, Vidieu, C. Schneider, and others to throw some
light on the subject have proved fruitless.



Fonte:
The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. IV, New York, 1908