Saint Dionysius the Areopagite

This is what antiquity teaches us about Denis, before he was enlightened by the lights of the Gospel. As for his conversion, it is described by Saint Luke, in chapter XVII of the Acts of the Apostles. Saint Paul Apostle to whom Saint Rufus attached himself for his missions. Saint Paul, having come to Athens and seeing this city more plunged than all the others of Greece into superstition and idolatry, applied himself with incredible zeal to dispel these shadows by making known the truth of one God. Sometimes he preached to the Jews in their synagogue, to reveal to them the fulfillment of the promises of the law in the coming of Jesus Christ; sometimes he approached Stoics, Epicureans, and other philosophers in the public squares, to convince them by evident reasons of the falsity of paganism and the necessity of recognizing a single author of all things.

These philosophers listened to him for some time with patience, and tried to elude the invincible force of his arguments with subtleties; but seeing finally that they could not resist them and that, moreover, he was announcing to them a doctrine contrary to the principles of philosophy, such as the incarnation of the Word and the resurrection of the dead, they dragged him to the Areopagus to be judged and condemned as a sower of novelties. It was in this august theater, where the greatest minds of Greece were assembled, that this divine Apostle showed the depth of his erudition and his entirely celestial wisdom. He took as the subject of his discourse an inscription he had found in the city, above an altar, bearing these words: *Ignoto Deo*: "To the Unknown God"; and he spoke so excellently of the necessity of knowing and adoring this God, creator of heaven and earth, whom they did not know, and of abandoning the worship of idols of gold, silver, stone, and wood that they had adored until then, that many yielded to his reasons. The principal one of those who attached themselves to the Apostle was our Denis the Areopagite; he renounced the superstition of idolatry, and even left the employments of secular life, to become a perfect disciple of Jesus Christ. It was a great subject of astonishment and at the same time of consolation for him, when he discovered, in his conversations with Saint Paul, that the extraordinary eclipse he had observed at Heliopolis, at the age of twenty-five, and of which he had marked the day, the hour, and the moment, had happened exactly at the time of the Savior's Passion, as a sign of the mourning that all of nature conceived for it. He was marvelously confirmed by this encounter in his submission to the Gospel, which he had already professed, and this is what makes him say, in his Epistle to Saint Polycarp, that the eclipse he had seen had made him pass from error to truth, from darkness to light, from death to life, and from the abominable worship of simulacra to the knowledge of the true God. A learned author says that it was for Saint Denis that Our Lord led Saint Paul to Athens; and we can add that it was also for him that He procured this great eclipse which was to, by its darkness, dispel his own and make him enter into the beautiful day of Christianity.

He had great struggles to sustain in the beginnings of his conversion; for, except for those whom a blind passion made aspire to the rank he possessed in the Areopagus, no one could see but with sorrow that this illustrious senate was deprived of a judge so upright and so enlightened. His relatives opposed his resolution with all their might and tried to dissuade him from it, by pointing out to him the harm he was doing to his whole family and to himself, by leaving a position that the wisest of the Republic regarded as the object most worthy of their ambition. But the grace of Jesus Christ was stronger in him than nature, and nothing was capable of shaking his constancy and making him abandon the resolution he had taken to conform himself to the poor and humiliated life of his Savior.

As he was not long in being perfectly instructed in all our mysteries, Saint Paul soon conferred upon him the sacrament of Baptism. Then, he shared with him those high lights he had received in his rapture to the third heaven, as much as they could be explained by sensible words. For this, he took him with him for three years on several of his journeys, training him in evangelical virtues and the labors of preaching. Denis also had as master and director the divine Hierotheus, as he himself testifies in his book *On the Divine Names*, chapter II, and he learned from him great secrets on the different ways of knowing God, on the unity, the distinction, and the circumincession of the divine persons, and on other very high and very spiritual subjects. Finally, the number of Christians having increased in Athens, Saint Paul, whose solicitude extended to all the Churches, gave them Denis as bishop. One cannot describe with enough dignity his entirely holy conduct and his eminent virtues in the episcopate. He made himself a living image of the mortification, zeal, and charity of the Apostle. He treated his body with merciless rigor.

Fasting and abstinence were his most agreeable nourishment. He applied himself assiduously to reading, prayer, and the contemplation of eternal truths. The presence of God was all his delight; and rising to Him sometimes by affirmation, sometimes by negation, sometimes by a simple gaze at His infinite majesty, without any distinction of attributes and perfections, sometimes by a taste and an experimental knowledge of what He is, he lived more in Him and of Him than in himself and of himself. This interior occupation detached him so strongly from the senses and from all sensible affections that he became an entirely celestial man. The greatest advantages of the earth appeared to him as nothing more than mud. Jesus Christ was his treasure, and he knew no other good than to serve Him, to please Him, and to enjoy Him eternally. Humility, patience, gentleness, chastity, and simplicity of heart were in him to a very eminent degree, and he made it his whole study to put to death the old man within himself, so as to be clothed only with the new. Notwithstanding all these exercises of the interior life, he did not fail to apply himself with admirable vigor to all the duties of the apostolic life. He often preached to his people, and he did so with such zeal and fire that he inflamed with divine love all those who had the happiness of hearing him. His charity was not confined within the walls of Athens; he often went out to carry the light of the Gospel to the surrounding areas, and he increased his flock by this means so notably that he made it one of the most considerable Churches in Greece.

We can judge by what he writes in his book on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy what regulations he established in his own church. He made it like a copy of the celestial hierarchy, by the distinction he placed between the different members who compose it. The bishop made up the first order, the priests the second, and the ministers or deacons the third. He also divided the laity into three classes: the first was that of the religious, that is to say, persons separated from the commerce of the world and entirely dedicated to the worship of God; the second, that of the holy and faithful people, who, being still in the innocence of baptism, or having recovered grace through the expiation of penance, were judged worthy of the sight and participation of the holy mysteries; and, under these two, he includes a third, which nevertheless deserves the second rank: that of the virgins, of whom Saint Paul speaks with such honor in chapter VII of his first Epistle to the Corinthians. There remain those who were not admitted to the communion of the Eucharist, of whom he distinguishes three kinds, namely: the penitents, whom their crimes committed after Baptism excluded for a time from the holy Table; the possessed or energumens, who were not suffered in the church during the celebration of the Mass, because of the violence that the unclean spirits made them commit; and the catechumens who, not being baptized, could not have a part in the celestial and divine food of the faithful. For these very different persons, he marked three different places in the temple, which corresponded to what we call the choir, the nave, and the porch. The first was for the bishop, the priests, and the Levites, and it was there that they sang the praises of God and celebrated the formidable mysteries of our redemption. The second was for the religious, the virgins, and the people, where they made their prayers, heard the word of God, and prepared themselves for holy communion. For at that time the religious were not yet distinguished from the body of the laity, and did not have private oratories and temples to celebrate the divine offices. There was only for them a separate place outside the choir, which approached closer to the altar than that where the rest of the people stood. Finally, the third was for the penitents, the energumens, and the catechumens, where they waited with impatience to be purified, to be able to approach the source of all purity, which is the Eucharist. Thus the church of Athens flourished under the guidance of such a wise pastor, and was on all sides the good odor of Jesus Christ. Moreover, this holy Bishop had a commerce of letters with the greatest men of nascent Christianity. We still have those he wrote to Titus, to Timothy, to Polycarp, and to other preachers of the Gospel, which are full of the spirit of God and the science of the Saints. Some authors have even asserted that he also wrote to the holy Virgin, and that he had the happiness of seeing her at Ephesus, when she made a journey there with Saint John the Evangelist; but these two facts are uncertain, and we have no testimony of them in antiquity.

What is more certain, and what he himself teaches us in his book On the Divine Names, is that he had the consolation of being in Jerusalem at the time of her passing and of witnessing the wonders that occurred there, with Saint Peter, Saint James, Saint Hierotheos, and many other holy personages who had gathered there, as we noted in the discourse on the feast of the Assumption. We know that these words have caused some discussion among scholars: some claiming that he was speaking of the Mother of God, and others that he was speaking only of the sepulcher of Our Lord; but Saint Juvenal, Saint Andrew of Crete, Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint John Damascene, Saint Gregory of Tours, Saint Ildefonsus, and the blessed Albert the Great have explained them as referring to the Blessed Virgin.

There are only a few insignificant authors who have applied them to the Savior's sepulcher; the text alone sufficiently shows that this great Doctor intended to teach us that he was present at the funeral of this divine mother. Here is how he speaks to Timothy in the admirable eulogy he gives of Saint Hierotheos: "You know," he says to him, "that when we and he himself, and many of our blessed brothers, gathered to see that body which gave the principle to life and which received God into its womb in an ineffable manner, Saint Hierotheos was, after the Apostles, the first and most excellent of those who praise the divine goodness." What can this body be that gave the principle to life and that received God into its womb in such an eminent manner, if not the body of the august Mary, from whom the flesh of Jesus Christ was formed and who carried Him for nine months in her virginal womb? As for the sepulcher, it would be an improper way to call it the body and to attribute to it the principle of life: for, although it is the place where Jesus Christ resumed life, it did not, nevertheless, contribute to this wonder, and it cannot legitimately be called its cause or principle. Moreover, as Cardinal Baronius remarks very well, the Apostles had often seen this holy sepulcher: why would they have held such a solemn and extraordinary assembly at that time to see it and to sing hymns and canticles all around it in honor of God? Furthermore, although it is commonly held that on this occasion the Apostles were miraculously transported to Jerusalem by the ministry of angels, we have no evidence that obliges us to say the same of Saint Denis. He may have traveled there by ordinary means, following an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, especially since the journey from Athens to Jerusalem, which is made by sea, is not of long duration, and he could then have been occupied even closer to the preaching of the Gospel. This honor that he had received and the wonders he had seen, both at the death and at the burial of our Queen, and also at her tomb when it was opened in favor of Saint Thomas, gave him all his life a particular esteem, affection, and respect for her: as it appears by the church he had built in her honor in Paris, and by the singular friendship he contracted with Saint John, whom Our Lord had given to His Mother as guardian, steward, and son.

It is not known precisely when he wrote these two letters. All that we can say regarding his chronology is that he was converted in the year 50 of salvation, at about the age of forty; that he went to Jerusalem and attended the passing of the Blessed Virgin in the year 56 or 57; and that until the time of Saint Clement, Pope, he carried out various missions in Greece and Asia for the propagation of the Gospel. It was during this interval, in which Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and Nerva successively held the seat of the Roman Empire, that he went to Achaia, where Saint Andrew had already endured martyrdom, in order to strengthen the new faithful there in the doctrine they had received from that Apostle. Then, crossing the sea and traveling through an infinity of cities and villages that were on his route, he went to Phrygia, where he remained for some time in Troas; and finally he came to Lacedaemon, that famous rival of Athens, where Cardinal Baronius believes he wrote to Saint John the Evangelist, relegated by Domitian to the island of Patmos, that prophetic letter in which he assures him not only that he will be delivered from his exile and will return to Asia, but also that he will write his Gospel there and that they will have the consolation of embracing one another there. Shortly after, this prophecy began to be fulfilled; indeed, Domitian having died, and the Senate having annulled all his decrees because of their excessive cruelty, Saint John had the liberty to leave Patmos, where he had composed his Apocalypse, and to return to Ephesus; Saint Denis went to find him there, and they had a conversation together that was entirely heavenly. It was apparently in this interview that he conceived the design of going to the West to work for the ruin of idolatry. Saint John represented to him the deplorable state in which the beautiful and rich provinces of Europe were, the infinite multitude of souls who were being lost there every day for being deprived of the knowledge of the truths and remedies of salvation, the few workers who were there to stop the course of so many evils, and the necessity of sending some from the East, where they were in greater number. Denis, aged as he was—for he could not have been less than seventy-eight years old—offered to undertake this work and to go find Saint Clement, successor of Saint Peter, to communicate his design to him. The Apostle approved his zeal and gave him his blessing for it.

Thus our Saint, leaving for his successor in Athens Saint Publius, whom Saint Paul had converted and baptized with all his family on the island of Malta, and taking with him Saint Rusticus, a priest, and Saint Eleutherius, a deacon, crosse d the sea and saint Clément Pope who ordained and sent Latuin on a mission. came to Rome, where he presented himself to Saint Clement, disposed to go wherever he would judge most appropriate to work in the vineyard of the Son of God. The holy Pope had an incredible joy at this resolution, knowing the merit of this great man, the abundance of graces with which Our Lord had filled him, and his divine eloquence, capable of touching the most hardened hearts. As there was no ecclesiastic in Rome who did not wish to march under the banner of such a brave captain, he had no difficulty in forming for him a numerous company of apostolic preachers to depart with him. The battlefield that he proposed to him was the Gauls with a part of the Spains, where in truth Saint Paul had passed and left some of his disciples, but who, nevertheless, in most of the provinces, had not yet heard of the doctrine of the Gospel. As for the companions he gave him, the number is not known exactly. However, it is thought that he gave him few at first, but that subsequently he sent him holy recruits, according to whether the hope of the harvest increased or new workers capable of such an important ministry presented themselves. Those who are most commonly noted are Saint Rieul, who had come from the East, Saint Marcel, surnamed Eugene, Saint Eutrope, Saint Lucien, Saint Nicaise, Saint Quirin, Saint Taurin, Saint Jonat, Saint Saintin, and Saint Antoine.

We know that some authors of the 18th century have fought with great ardor the history of the mission of Saint Denis the Areopagite in the Gauls; they claim that the one who suffered martyrdom in Paris, and whom we recognize as our apostle, is not this famous disciple of Saint Paul, but another, much more recent, sent only in the time of the Emperor Decius, and well into the third century. But there is such a great agreement between the Greek Church and the Roman Church in asserting that our holy Apostle is the same as the Areopagite, as Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims, noted in a letter to the Emperor Charles the Bald, that it cannot be seriously called into doubt. The tradition was already very ancient under the reign of Louis the Pious, father of the same Charles, as it appears from what Saint Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers; Saint Eugene II, Bishop of Toledo; the Venerable Bede, very learned in ecclesiastical history; Saint Simeon, surnamed Metaphrastes, famous author of the Lives of the Saints; Saint Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople; Michael Syncellus, priest of Jerusalem; Anastasius the Librarian; the Abbot Romanus; and the Council of Paris, held in 825, in a letter to Pope Eugene II, have written about it. But it became even more certain when Hilduin, Abbot of Saint-Denis in France, after a very exact search that he made by the express order of the Emperor Louis the Pious, had shown the truth of it through public and authentic testimonies to which there was no reply. Since that time, one has been for more than eight centuries in the same belief, without anyone having opposed it. Everyone, on the contrary, was very persuaded that in dreaming of the Apostle of the Gauls, one was dreaming of the blessed Areopagite. It was only the criticism of our time, which has made it a point of honor to refine upon the best-received historical traditions, that was capable of reawakening this contest already judged and put to rest, and of disputing with us again the glory of having such a great man for our first bishop. But whatever effort it makes, it will not destroy a sentiment so strongly established on antiquity and so deeply imprinted in the heart of the French. There are truly some difficulties regarding this mission of Saint Denis the Areopagite in France, as there are on all ancient traditions of which all the circumstances have not been marked exactly enough; but if one wants to take the trouble to read the learned authors who have written since on this matter, among others Baronius, Sponde, Du Saussay, Germain Milet, Hugues Ménard, and Noël Alexandre of the Order of Saint Dominic, Mgr Freppel, Abbé Darras, M. Faillon, the Fathers Halloix, Lanssel, Cordier, Chifflet, etc., one will find them resolved there with much light and erudition. On what foundation did one want to establish that the Saint Denis of Paris is not the same as the great Areopagite, disciple of Saint Paul? It is that the faith was preached in the Gauls only very late under the Emperor Decius, as one claims to gather from Sulpicius Severus and Gregory of Tours; now, this sentiment is in no way sustainable, for it is against all probability. What! The Gospel was carried to the Scythians, the Brahmins, the Indians, the Ethiopians, and the Moors of Africa; and the Gauls alone, which are at the door of Rome, would have been to this point neglected and abandoned by the Apostles and the sovereign Pontiffs, even in times when the Church was enjoying some truce and was not being persecuted by the Roman emperors, when there was nothing easier than to assist them?

Let us say then that our holy Areopagite, being provided with the blessing of Saint Clement, left Rome and went to the Gauls. He arrived first at Arles, where he performed the great actions that we have marked in the life of Saint Rieul and that it is not necessary to repeat here. Before leaving, he began to distribute his small troop for the preaching of the Gospel. He left Saint Rieul at Arles and named him bishop. He sent Saint Eugene to the Pyrenees and entrusted to him the conversion of the Spains. He initiated Saint Eutrope in Saintonge, where he had made a journey.

For his part, he advanced toward Paris, meditating in his heart the conquest of this entire great kingdom, not by iron and fire, as Caesar had conquered it, but by the power of the word of God and by shedding his own blood for those he wished to win for Jesus Christ. Then, the rest of his missionaries divided. Lucian was destined for Beauvais; Nicasius and Quirinus, for Rouen; Taurinus, for Evreux; Jonas, for Chartres; Sanctinus, for Verdun; and Antonius for the Chartres region. Denis too k for Denis First bishop of Paris and martyr, disciple of Saint Paul. his mission, with Rusticus and Eleutherius, his two faithful companions, the city of Paris itself; he arrived there by way of the Saint-Jacques gate; he first stopped at the place where the University is, which was then only a fallow field, or a deserted and uninhabited wood. People soon gathered around him; he spoke with such light and vigor of the vanity of idols and the necessity of recognizing one God, creator of heaven and earth, and one Jesus Christ, savior and restorer of the world, that he soon drew a crowd of people to Christianity. This happy success led him to resolve to build several oratories at the place of his retreat. The Antiquities of Paris mark four of them. The first was dedicated in honor of the most holy Trinity, and it was at the place where the church of Saint-Benoît was later located; also, in the chapel of Saint-Denis of that church, one could still read, in 1685, these words on stained glass windows: *In hoc sacello sanctus Dionysius expti invocare nomen sanctæ Trinitatis*: "Saint Denis began in this chapel to invoke the name of the holy Trinity." The second was dedicated in honor of the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul; it is the one where Saint Genevieve often offered her prayers, and for which she procured the expansion and embellishment from King Clovis I, and where she was finally buried: which caused it to take the title of Sainte-Geneviève. The third was dedicated in honor of Saint Stephen, the first martyr; it was still called, in 1785, Saint-Étienne des Grecs, because of Saint Denis and his companions, who spoke Greek and had come from Greece. The fourth was dedicated in honor of Our Lady. It has since been named Notre-Dame des Champs; the Carmelite nuns, daughters of Saint Teresa, possessed it before the revolution and renewed there by their innocence and fervor the admirable life of those first Christians of the city of Paris. Saint Denis left there a small part of the Virgin's veil, which he had inherited from her at the opening of her tomb, and one of her images where she was represented, holding her divine Child on her knees.

Among those who received from his hand the venerable Sacrament of spiritual regeneration, the first and principal one was a Parisian lord, named Lisbius; the Montmorencys claim him as the stem of their illustrious house; whence it comes that they placed these words in their war cry: "God help the first Christian!" This neophyte, unable to sufficiently acknowledge the obligations he had to his master, begged him to enter the city and come to dwell in his home. The Saint did not refuse this opportunity that divine Providence offered him to make greater conquests. He therefore established his residence in the mansion of Lisbius, and even made it a church to confer Baptism upon those who were converted and to celebrate the august Mysteries. It is believed that this church was the parish of Saint-Barthélemy, in front of the Palace.

The presence of this great preacher and his companions advanced the cause of religion wonderfully within the confines of Paris. There was a rush to hear them, to join the ranks of the catechumens, and to be baptized; and one would have soon seen the whole city abjure idolatry and make a public profession of Christianity, had not Fescennius, who governed for the emperor, rushed in to oppose these advances. They were so well known to everyone that he had no trouble discovering them and having them seized. While they were at his tribunal, Larcie, the wife of Lisbius, their host, who had always remained stubborn in paganism and hated them to death because of the profusions her husband made for their sustenance and that of the faithful, made herself their accuser. She also denounced her husband as an accomplice to their crimes and guilty of impiety toward the gods of the land. Upon this denunciation, Fescennius had them seized and immediately brought before him. He spared nothing to persuade them to renounce Jesus Christ and to worship Mars and Mercury; but, finding them unshakable and disposed to endure a thousand deaths rather than commit this impiety, he had Lisbius beheaded on the spot, who earned, by this death, the glorious title of the first Christian of Paris. As for Saint Denis and his companions, he had them thrown into the dungeons of the neighboring prison, which was then called the prison of Glaucin, and which has since been changed into a church under the name of Saint-Denis de la Chartre. This prison was not a simple detention for them, but a torture: for their heads were passed through large stones pierced in the middle, and they were attached in such a way that they were forced to remain always lying on the ground in very painful postures. One could still see, in the 18th century, one of these stones in the same church, as a testimony to this cruelty.

Shortly after, this president had them brought back before him; and, after having uselessly pressed them, sometimes by promises, sometimes by threats, to consent to his wishes, he had them cruelly scourged. One cannot admire enough the strength and constancy of the great Saint Denis, who, aged more than one hundred years, endured this martyrdom with as much peace and tranquility as if he had been lying on a bed of roses. All his limbs were torn with lashes, his bones were even exposed, and he was bathed in his own blood. However, he never complained, and if any words escaped his lips, they were only words of praise and blessing. "May my tongue," he said, "bless the Lord, and may all my entrails be used to praise His goodness." Saint Rusticus and Saint Eleutherius, who shared in the torments of their master, also imitated his generosity. Neither the violence of the blows, nor the repeated wounds, nor the blood they saw flowing from their bodies, were capable of shaking their courage and making them waver in their resolution. The tyrant, frightened by this perseverance, had them all led to prison, hoping that the pain of their wounds, joined to the unbearable odor of the place, would finally cause them weariness and make them more submissive to the emperor's desires; but he was deceived in his expectation. The sufferings only increased their fervor, and they appeared the next day at his tribunal with more joy and boldness than they had ever shown. Fescennius, furious, had the treatment of the previous day repeated upon them, and, as this cruelty served no purpose, he armed himself with a new rage, mainly against the holy Bishop: he had him stretched on a gridiron, under which he ordered a great fire to be lit. We leave it to the reader to think what the martyrdom of this venerable old man was, when his body, already all torn and bloodied, began to feel the rigor of the flame and to burn. He nevertheless showed no sign of sadness or discontent; but, sustaining himself in this torture with an unshakable firmness, he did nothing but implore the mercy of God and immolate himself to His justice. The executioners were immediately ordered to lift him from this bed to be exposed to lions; but these beasts, not daring to touch him, and having on the contrary prostrated themselves before him to lick his feet, he was thrown into a burning furnace that was to consume him in a moment. Our Lord, who wanted to make his martyrdom even more brilliant, helped him admirably in this encounter. He dampened the heat of this furnace and made it as cool and pleasant as the furnace of Babylon when the three children were enclosed in it. Denis therefore entered it, but he received no damage, and he came out in better condition than he had entered. Then, he was attached to a cross, so that he might have the honor of being the living image of Jesus Christ crucified. As he had the same inclinations for the cross as his dear Master, he also made the same uses of it. He made it an altar to sacrifice himself, a pulpit to preach, and a throne to reign.

The people having gathered around him, he seized the opportunity to announce to them the ineffable mystery of the Savior's passion and the happiness it had brought to the world: and he would have made no fewer conversions on this instrument of pain than in the pulpit of his church, had the president not had him promptly detached. All this took place in the middle of the public square of Paris, which was then on the edge of the river, at the head of the island of the palace, at the place where a church has since been built under the name of Saint-Denis du Pas. It is said that the high altar of this church was erected at the very spot where the Saint was stretched on the gridiron, and the place of the furnace where he was thrown was also shown there.

So many different tortures having been unable to take the life of our holy Martyrs, they were led back to their dungeon, with many other Christians who had shown too much zeal for their deliverance. It was then that the blessed Prelate, perfectly free in his chains, wished to celebrate, for the last time, the august Sacrifice of the Mass, in order to strengthen his dear children and to strengthen himself, through the communion of the body of Jesus Christ, against the battles that remained for them to endure. But, by a signal wonder, when he was at the breaking of the host, Our Lord appeared visibly to all those present, and, taking with His own hands His body, which was on the altar, He gave it to him, saying: "Receive this, my beloved, and do not doubt the reward that awaits you, you, and all those who will listen to your word. You will fight valiantly and you will win the victory. The memory of your martyrdom will be immortal; and, when you pray for someone, you will obtain everything you ask for." At the same time, the prison was filled with an admirable light, and each faithful felt in his soul an ardor of faith and a desire for martyrdom that is inconceivable. The grace of the Savior did not even limit itself to the prison; it went to find the unhappy Larcie outside, for whom, no doubt, her husband had prayed in heaven, and it touched her heart so powerfully that it made her a holy penitent.

However, the next day having arrived, Fescennius recalled the prisoners for the last time, and, finding them as firm and unshakable as before, after having had them whipped again, he condemned them to have their heads cut off. They were immediately led to the northern side of the city, on a hill dedicated to Mercury, which we now call Montmartre, that is to say, mount of the Martyrs: and there, in the presence of an infinity of people who were melting into tears, their heads were cut off with small, blunt axes, in order to cause them more pain. This Montmartre Site of the beheading of Denis and his companions. was on October 9, toward the end of the empire of Trajan, or at the beginning of that of Hadrian, around the year 117. At the same time, a horrible carnage of Christians took place, both inside the city and in the surroundings, in which Larcie, who had just recognized her fault and converted, was involved. She was not yet baptized; but her blood, shed for Jesus Christ, served as her Baptism.

Saint Denis having been thus beheaded, his body rose of its own accord, and, taking his head in his hands, carried it in triumph to the place where the city of his name now stands, two leagues from Paris. This prodigy is reported, not only by recent authors, but also in the Menologies of the Greeks, and by Simeon Metaphrastes, Methodius, Hilduin, Hugh of Saint-Victor, Nicephorus Callistus, Caelius Rhodiginus, and many others. During his walk, angels sang with an admirable melody: Gloria tibi, Domine, and others responded: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. When he had gone a league, he met a pious woman named Catulla, whom he had instructed in the faith; into her hands he surrendered the inestimable treasure of his head and fell at the same time at her feet. This holy woman had an extraordinary joy at having been chosen by this blessed bishop to be the depositary of his relics. She hid them carefully in her house, along with those of Saint Rusticus and Saint Eleutherius, which she had the skill and good fortune to recover for a price in money. He is represented receiving his head in his hands and going to hand it over to a Christian woman who is holding a cloth.

## CULT AND RELICS.

### ABBEY OF SAINT-DENIS. — ITS WRITINGS.

Saint Genevieve, who had a marvelous devotion toward the holy Martyrs and often visited their sepulchers, being inspired by God and forestalled by an extraordinary help of His Providence, had a stone chapel built over their tombs, much larger than the wooden one that Catullus had built there. It is the one where Dagobert, still young, took refuge to avoid the anger of Clotaire II, his father, who was looking for him to punish him for an outrage he had committed against his governor. While he was there, Saint Denis appeared to him in a dream and promised to pull him from the danger he was in if he would commit himself to building a new church in this place to place his body and that of his companions more honorably. Dagobert pledged to do so, and, having since arrived at the crown, he fulfilled his vow with all the magnificence that could be expected from the zeal and fervor of a most Christian king. Our Lord Himself consecrated this church with a troop of blessed spirits on the very night that the bishops were preparing for the ceremony of consecration, and He had the assurance given by a leper who had hidden there and whom He healed of his leprosy to render a sure testimony of this signal favor. It was February 24, 630, the day of Saint Matthias, according to the calculation of Guillaume de Nangis. This prince also had a monastery built adjoining t his church, which he gave to Be monastère joignant cette église Site housing a relic of an Innocent. nedictine monks to be in perpetuity the depositaries and guardians of the relics of his illustrious benefactor; thus this place, which was previously only a small village, called the village of Catullus, because of this pious lady who had buried these holy bodies, became a city that took the name of Saint-Denis.

In the middle of the 14th century, the monks of Saint-Emmeran, of Regensburg, having spread the rumor that they possessed the venerable body of Saint Denis the Areopagite, and that it had been given to them by King Arnulf, Henry I, who was then in France, had a great assembly of prelates and princes held at Saint-Denis to visit his reliquary and ensure the truth. Odo, brother of His Majesty, Queen Adela, the bishops of Meaux and Orléans, and a quantity of abbots attended; the reliquary was opened, and all the bones of the blessed Martyr were happily found there, with the exception of one that Pope Stephen III had taken away. A marvelous odor came out of these precious relics and perfumed the entire church. The king, having learned what had happened, came himself barefoot from his palace in Paris to this abbey to honor this illustrious patron of France. One of the abbots obtained some remains, already quite worn, of the veils in which the bones had been wrapped, and, having placed them on the head of a furious demoniac, he healed him in an instant.

Besides the famous church of which we have just spoken, another was built at the very place where the Saints had been beheaded, which was named for that reason the Martyrs, on the slope of the hill called Montmartre, on the north side of Paris. It was at the beginning a priory of the Order of Cluny, dependent on that of Saint-Martin-des-Champs; but King Louis the Fat, at the persuasion of the pious Queen Adela, his wife, transferred the monks of this monastery to Saint-Denis de la Chartre, within the enclosure of Paris, and put in their place at Montmartre Benedictine nuns, for whom he had a large and rich abbey raised, which has always been governed by abbesses illustrious for their piety and their birth. The new church of this convent was dedicated by Pope Eugene III, who had been a disciple of Saint Bernard and who had the same Saint Bernard as deacon at this ceremony, and Saint Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, as sub-deacon. One cannot believe the concourse of people who formerly went continuously to this sanctuary to render their vows to the glorious Saint Denis and to kiss the earth that was bathed in his blood. It was there that Saint Ignatius of Loyola led his first companions to consecrate themselves to Jesus Christ and to begin his Order there. The monks of the great abbey of Saint-Denis carried the head of their patron there every seven years with much pomp and magnificence.

The Popes, the kings of France, and several other princes have rendered great honors to the memory of this glorious apostle of the Gauls. Saint Zachary, confirming with his apostolic power the exemption that Saint Landry, bishop of Paris, had given to his abbey, says expressly that he does it for the love and in consideration of such a great martyr. Eugene III only dedicated the church of Montmartre out of deep respect for this holy bishop who was to be its patron. Alexander III, having come to France, visited with much devotion all the chapels and relics of the abbey of Saint-Denis; which gave occasion to the prodigious moving of the bones of Saint Hippolytus. Finally, Pope Stephen III, having taken refuge in France to avoid the oppression of the Lombards, chose his dwelling in this abbey; then, having fallen so ill that his own servants were already beginning to abandon him, he was healed there by the same Saint Denis, who appeared to him with Saint Peter and Saint Paul and touched him with his sacred hands. Such a great favor greatly increased his devotion toward this heavenly physician. Thus, he asked for a bone of his body, and having obtained it and taken it to Rome, he had a beautiful church built there in his honor, which he destined for the Greek monks. It is true that he did not have time to finish it; but Paul I, his brother, put the finishing touch to it, and, to satisfy the intention of Stephen, he put the Greeks in possession of it. It was commonly called the school or college of the Greeks.

Our kings began to honor Saint Denis as soon as they began to be Christians. Clovis the Great learned this devotion from his wife, Saint Clotilda, and it is held that it is from him that this ancient cry came: *Mon jou saint Denis*, which means: I no longer know Jupiter, but my Jupiter is Saint Denis. It has since been changed into this other: Montjoie-Saint-Denis. Clotaire II pardoned his son Dagobert, against whom he was extremely indignant, in consideration of Saint Denis, to whom he had had recourse. The same Dagobert was not content with building a superb basilica in his honor; but he also had three reliquaries made of fine gold and enriched with an infinity of precious pearls, of which it is believed that Saint Eligius was the craftsman, to enclose his relics and those of Saint Rusticus and Saint Eleutherius, his companions. He had the part of the church roof that was to correspond to these reliquaries covered with silver. And to testify further his respect toward his blessed protector, he made a concession of his kingdom to him, no longer wishing to hold it except in fief and in homage to him. In faith of which, he placed his own crown on the altar of his chapel, with four gold bezants, as a tribute that he owed him in his capacity as a vassal. Pepin the Short, the first king of the second race, had so much esteem and veneration for his merits that he did not wish to be buried in his church, but only outside, following the example of Constantine the Great, who, according to Saint John Chrysostom, chose his burial at the door of a church where there were relics of Saint Peter. Charlemagne, his son, and the most glorious of our kings, imitated the piety of Dagobert; for, before leaving France to go to Aachen, in Germany, he did him homage for his States with some pieces of silver that he offered him, and by an order that he gave to his treasurers to pay him the same tribute every year. One cannot add anything to the praises that Louis the Pious gives him in his letter to Abbot Hilduin. He makes a count of the graces that the kings, his predecessors, had received from his benevolence, and he confesses that it is by his power that he himself had recovered his kingdom, of which the princes, his children, had dispossessed him. Charles the Bald, the last son of Louis the Pious, whom he had placed while dying under the tutelage of Saint Denis, was no less an heir to this signal piety than to his crown. He had all his life a very tender affection for our Saint, to whom he had recourse in all the necessities of his State, and, having dissipated by his assistance a formidable army of Danes who were coming to sack France, he made great gifts to his abbey in recognition.

The holy King Robert, in an authentic act of several donations that he made to this monastery, assures that it has been a long time since he placed all his confidence in the intercession of this Saint and his companions. We have already noted that Louis the Fat had the abbey of Montmartre, near Paris, built in his honor, and that he went barefoot to Saint-Denis to venerate his relics; but what is more remarkable is that he presented his own royal shoulders to carry them, and that he did not believe he was doing an injury to the majesty of his empire to burden himself with these precious bones that must one day participate in the glory that the soul of this blessed Martyr already possesses in heaven. Louis VII, called the Young, son and successor of Louis the Fat, took on the same burden; and, knowing how powerful the help of such a great servant of God is in armies, he did not wish to leave France to march against the Saracens without having implored his powerful intercession with many tears at the foot of his altars and without having received at the same place the blessed standards that were to serve as a signal for his army. Philip Augustus did the same; and, attributing to Saint Denis all the advantages he had had in the Holy Land, he came to render him thanks in his own church. Saint Louis, who had united in himself alone all the piety of his ancestors, did not yield to them in these practices. As soon as he was crowned, he brought his crown to the altar of Saint Denis, and, before passing into Palestine and Africa, he came to his abbey to interest him by his humility and his prayers in these glorious enterprises. Finally, not to extend ourselves further, almost all our kings of the third race and many kings of the two preceding ones chose their burial in this famous basilica of Saint-Denis, and they gave it so many sacred objects of inestimable price that they composed, in the 18th century, one of the richest treasures that was in Europe. The monastery of Saint-Denis had in deposit the Oriflamme, that famous standard of fire color and sprinkled with golden flames, which is believed to have b Oriflamme Banner of the abbey that became the standard of the kings of France. een sent from heaven, which was originally the banner of the abbey of Saint-Denis, and which, after the advent of the Capetians, became the banner of France; it is it that guided the French to victory with the old war cry: Mont-Joie and Saint-Denis.

Not only the kings of France, but princes and other personages were also buried at Saint-Denis. Bishops often retired to its cloisters to end their days there. Our kings often made their stay there. Several assemblies or councils were held at Saint-Denis, namely, in 997, in 1052, to verify the authenticity of the body of Saint Denis. In 1382, a conference was held under the vaults of the abbey regarding the taxes whose increase had excited a sedition in Paris. Pope Alexander III permitted the abbot, around the year 1179, to make use of the miter, the ring, and the sandals. Guillaume de Gap was the first to use them. The abbot of Saint-Denis was one of the principal lords of France. Hugh Capet was abbot of Saint-Denis and of Saint-Riquier. This ancient abbey underwent several Reforms, but its proximity to the capital and the special protection of the sovereigns preserved it from those frightful disasters of which so many other monasteries were victims. We only see the monks of Saint-Denis exiling themselves from their cloister, at the time of the wars of the Normans, and taking refuge in Reims (from 887 to 890) with the relics of their patron saint.

The re-establishment of commendams in Saint-Denis at the beginning of the 16th century placed successively in the abbatial chair of the monastery nine princes of the Church, of whom the Cardinal de Retz was to be the last. In this period of more than a century, the two abbatial palaces of Bourbon and Lorraine were built within the enclosure; in the same interval also the abbatial table increased at the expense of that of the monks, the monastery became impoverished, and the monastic discipline no longer kept any followers in the degenerated abbey. In 1633, the Reform of Saint-Maur revived, but belatedly, the spirit of the Rule and the taste for letters. However, because of its perpetual contact with the king and the court, the monastery, already ravaged by the Huguenots during the war of the three Henrys, was again almost ruined during the troubles of the Fronde. It indebted its domains to cover its numerous loans, and its buildings were falling into ruins at the death of the abbot Cardinal de Retz. The event that then influenced the future of Saint-Denis the most was not the transfer of its abbatial table to that of the house of Saint-Cyr, but the suppression of the title and dignity of the abbot in 1691. By detaching from the monastery everything that, for so many centuries, this dignity had gathered of prerogatives, privileges, external jurisdiction, supremacy, and authority over this sovereign abbey, this decree only took from it a luster always fatal to its discipline and its regularity; but, by taking away its head, it suddenly deprived it of its obligated protector and of the power most interested and most apt to defend it. Moreover, its time was finished. The French Revolution, which was already growing silently, decided the fall of this tree loaded with centuries, but bubbling with young sap at this hour when it was greening again.

It was at the expiration of the 17th century that the Benedictines of Saint-Denis would seriously occupy themselves with demolishing their abbey to accomplish the reconstruction of its buildings. The demolition of the old monastery began in 1700, under the grand priorate of Dom Augustin de Loo, and the work continued under sixteen other successive grand priors, the most active of whom were Dom de Saint-Marthe, Dom du Biez, and Dom de Malaret. The plan of the new monastery is the work of Robert de Cotte, a student of Jules Mansart; that of the circular buildings that surround the courtyard of honor is due to another architect, his successor, Christophe the elder. The dormitories of the south and east, the chapter house, the parliament, and the refectory were inaugurated in December 1718; the guesthouse, after 1738; the north gallery and the infirmary, in 1765, and the accessory works were completed in 1786, only seven years before the time when the masters of these dwellings underwent exile and death.

The year 1789 was the time of the first effects of popular passions in the city of Saint-Denis. On September 16, 1792, the basilica was declared a parish church by secular authority and received a foreign clergy. It was only later that the pillage and removal of the treasure took place, the rarest and most magnificent deposit that was then in France. A month later, a decree issued by the authority declared that the city of Saint-Denis would henceforth be called Denis-Françoise. On August 6, 1794, the violation and spoliation of the royal tombs began. This sacrilege without example lasted more than two months. In the course of this disastrous year, the profaned basilica had seen the decadal festivals substituted within its walls for Christian ceremonies. By turns a temple of Reason, an artillery depot, a theater for acrobats, a fodder warehouse, stripped of its stained glass, its monuments, and its roof, it sheltered hand mills for some time. They were established simultaneously in the interior of the abbey, which had become the seat of the revolutionary club and the administrators of the district. The year 1795 swept away these invaders, and the monastery was transformed into a military hospital for the wounded of the republican armies.

Today the old cloistral buildings are occupied by the house of education for the daughters of the members of the Legion of Honor, and the venerable basilica of Saint-Denis shines in its turn with a new luster. Thanks to a skillful restoration, to which all the governments that have succeeded one another for fifty years have hastened to contribute, it recalls today its ancient magnificence. An illustrious Chapter of Canons, attached to this post of honor, is charged with praying over the ancient tombs of our kings.

Saint Suibert, apostle of the Frisians, the blessed Notger, bishop in the Netherlands, and Saint Edith, sister of Saint Edward, King of England and martyr, all three had magnificent churches built in his honor. Another Saint Edward, also King of England and confessor, presented his abbey in France with a very considerable lordship in the county of Oxford; Saint Bridget deserved that this glorious apostle of the Gauls should appear to her to declare the will of God regarding her person and that of Prince Wulfon, her husband; the venerable Adela, wife of Louis the Fat, having become a widow of this king, retired to Montmartre, where she spent the rest of her life in the service of the Saint.

Several martyrologies, among others those of Usuard and the ancient Roman one of Rosweide, mark the memory of Saint Denis twice, namely: on October 3 in Athens, and on the 9th of the same month in Paris. But one should not infer from this that the one of Athens and the one of Paris are two different Saints, just as one does not distinguish many other Saints who are marked twice in the same martyrology. Usuard acted in this way because he found the feast of this illustrious Martyr celebrated by the Greeks and the Latins on various days; which is only too common for an infinity of other Saints.

Before the French Revolution, the relics of Saint Denis, Saint Rusticus, and Saint Eleutherius were kept in three silver shrines at the Abbey of Saint-Denis. At that time, the abbey's treasury was looted, but the holy relics were saved from profanation by Dom Warenfort, a religious of the house, carefully hidden and then deposited in the parish church of Saint-Denis in 1795. They were transferred with great solemnity to the church of the former abbey on May 26, 1819, and they are now preserved there in gilded bronze shrines. The metropolitan church of Paris possesses a bone of its holy founder.

In the diocese of Soissons, in the village of Longpont (Longus pons), three leagues from Villers-Cotterêts, is religiously preserved, not *caput integrum*, as the Bollandists say somewhat inaccurately, but the entire skull of Saint Denis the Areopagite, and this since the year 1205, without interruption or context.

Here is the origin and the proofs of its existence in the Bernardine abbey of Longpont. Nivelon I of Cherizy, fifty-ninth or sixtieth bishop of Soissons (1175-1207) and former canon of the cathedral of the same city, took the cross in 1202, under the reign of Philip Augustus, accompanied the crusaders to Constantinople, and played a major role in this expedition which is the Fourth Crusade. After the capture of Constantinople, he presided over the assembly of the twelve electors who chose Lord Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainaut, as the Latin emperor of this city. It was the bishop of Soissons who crowned him in the church of Hagia Sophia. Nivelon took advantage of this circumstance to enrich his cathedral and several churches of his diocese with various relics. He himself brought to the abbey, *apud Longum pontem*: *Caput beati Dionysii Areopagite, cum una cruce de ligno Domini*. Such are the very terms that can still be read at the Imperial Library of Paris, in a 13th-century manuscript called the *Ritual of Nivelon*. The Archaeological Society of Soissons had it printed in 1856. It forms a magnificent red and black quarto volume.

From Constantine onwards, the Greek emperors had gathered many relics in the imperial chapel. It is from this very chapel that Nivelon drew the head of Saint Denis the Areopagite, and it is Emperor Baldwin who, out of a feeling of gratitude, ceded it to him along with many other relics. The relic of Longpont is the skull, that is to say the sinciput or the forehead, the occiput, and the two sides without any fracture (*sine ulla fractura*) of Saint Denis. The following Greek words can be read on the skull: Ἀκροίς του αρου Απονοίου 'Αριεσαγιε. (This last word is not finished. The writing appears very ancient. It is not surprising that Longpont had the preference for the possession of this relic, as the father and mother of Nivelon were lords of this village.)

Mention is made of this portion of the head in all the works that speak of the abbey of Longpont. One reads in an ancient prose: *Nostri tenent exnobite caput Areopagite*. Moldrac, in his *Chronicon*, printed in 1652, says: *Cenobium Longipontis parte notabili capitis S. Dionysii Areopagite exnobit (Nivelo)*. Now, Moldrac had been a religious of Longpont since the age of sixteen. In his *Valois-Royal*, edited in 1662, he says: "Longpont still prides itself on possessing a good part of the head of Saint Denis, Areopagite." The breviaries of the diocese, that of Charles Doudan, under Louis XIV; that of M. de Fitzjames in 1742; the Paris breviary in 1760, confirm the same fact. Moreover, the General of the Order of Cîteaux having requested, in 1690, that an authentic recognition of this relic be made, the shrine was opened and it was found that everything was in accordance with what we have indicated above. The Bollandists, in the 2nd volume of October, edited in 1780, transcribed in full the official report drawn up on this occasion, which is signed by names known in the region: MM. Quinquet and Lallouette. The History of Valois, by Carlier, also mentions this relic as existing at the abbey of Longpont.

At the disastrous time of the revolution of 1793, the head of Saint Denis and the small shrine or casket that contained it were saved from looting, carefully hidden by the family of the sacristan and porter of the convent. This is a fact that is of public notoriety in the country. Upon the restoration of worship, this precious treasure was returned to the parish priest in charge of serving the parish of Longpont, who has religiously transmitted it to his successors.

The small casket that still contains the skull of Saint Denis the Areopagite today is the very one that has contained it since the 13th century. Its structure bears all the characteristics of that era. It is in damascened silver, of exquisite workmanship, twenty-two centimeters long by thirteen wide. Before the revolution, this silver casket was enclosed in another ivory shrine artistically worked and adorned with crystals and silver statuettes. Today this same casket is in the middle of a gilded wooden shrine, fifty-six centimeters long by thirty-nine wide. The top is surmounted by a small steeple topped by a cross.

On Sunday, October 4, 1846, Mgr Jules-François de Simony, ninety-third bishop of Soissons, traveled himself to Longpont, and there, in the presence of a numerous clergy and various members of the family of the Count of Montesquieu, he proceeded to the solemn recognition of the relic. After hearing the witnesses who had venerated it before the revolution and those whose parents had contributed to saving it from profanation, the head of Saint Denis the Areopagite was declared authentic, an official report was drawn up and signed by the bishop and all his noble assistance; finally, the episcopal seal was affixed to the double shrine which can be seen exposed, near that of Jean de Montmirail, in the castle church which serves for parish worship. The magnificent monastery church was almost as vast as the cathedral of Soissons. It was three hundred and twenty-eight feet long, eighty-two wide, eighty-four high, and one hundred and fifty-five feet at the transept. Its majestic ruins and the curiosities of the castle attract numerous visitors to Longpont every year.

The writings that remain to us of Saint Denis are: His books on the Celestial Hierarchy, the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, the Divine Names, and Mystical Theology, with eight letters to various persons ; but we have lost Hiérarchie céleste Major theological treatise attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite. what he had written on symbolic theology, the soul, sacred hymns, information on theology, the just judgment of God, and things that are known by sense or by intelligence. Cardinal Bellarmine, speaking of those that remain, makes no difficulty in saying that learned and Catholic men hold undoubtedly that they are by Saint Denis the Areopagite, and that only heretics with some half-learned people deny it. This is not the place to establish this historical truth: let us only say that the popes Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Martin, Saint Agathon, Adrian and Nicholas I, and several General Councils with a great number of Fathers and Doctors, among others Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Anastasius the Sinaite, the blessed Albert the Great, Saint Thomas, and Saint Bonaventure have attributed these works to him. It even seems that God wished to confirm this truth by miracles: for, when these precious books, whose manuscripts Emperor Michael the Stammerer sent to Louis the Pious, were brought to Saint-Denis by one of his legates, Theodore, deacon and steward of the Church of Constantinople, that very night, by their virtue, nineteen miraculous healings took place on very well-known persons who did not live far from the abbey; two centuries later, Saint Mayeul, Abbot of Cluny, having come to Saint-Denis, and having asked for the book of the Celestial Hierarchy to read it, the candle he held in his hand, and which he let fall upon it out of drowsiness, wore out and was consumed entirely, not only without burning it, but even without leaving any stain on it. The works of Saint Denis have been translated by Mgr Darboy, Archbishop of Paris.

We have completed this biography with Notes due to M. Henri Congnet, of the chapter of Soissons, and with the History of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, by Mme Félicie d'Ayzac. — Cf. Baronius; Simeon Metaphrastes; Methodius; the Rev. Fr. Pierre Halloix, and the Abbé Darras: Saint Denis l'Aréopagite, one vol. in-8vo. Paris, Louis Vivès, 1863.