Dionysius: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Dionysius grew up in Athens and received the full classical education of his city, then studied astronomy at Heliopolis in Egypt. The Church’s tradition says that there he saw the sun darkened at the hour of Christ’s Crucifixion and said that either the Creator of the world was suffering or the world was coming to its end. Back in Athens he sat on the Areopagus, the city’s highest court. When the Apostle Paul preached on the Hill of Ares, Dionysius believed and was baptized, as the Book of Acts records by name. He travelled and preached with St Paul for about three years, and the Apostle made him Bishop of Athens. Tradition also says he went to Jerusalem to meet the Mother of God and was present at her falling asleep. After St Paul’s death he carried the Gospel to the West with the presbyter Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius. In Gaul the three were arrested; Dionysius served the Divine Liturgy through the night, and in the morning all three were beheaded. A Christian woman named Catulla buried them. Writings on the angelic ranks, the mysteries of the Church and the divine names have long gone under his name and shaped Orthodox theology, though many scholars date them to a later author. The Church keeps his memory on 3 October (16 October on the Old Calendar). In his troparion the faithful ask him, who learned the hidden things of God from St Paul, to pray to Christ God for the salvation of our souls.

What the faithful pray for

• the salvation of our souls
• an open heart to hear the preaching of the Gospel
• understanding of the mysteries of the faith
• faithfulness to the end, as he kept the faith and finished his course