Among all the Apostle Paul’s disciples, the chief and foremost teacher of the Church after the apostles among those who wrote was Blessed Dyonisius the Areopagite.
He is named from the place of his origin. He maintained schools of philosophy as the greatest of philosophers. Because of the eminence of his wisdom, he was also called Theosephus, from theos, which means God, and sephus, which means wise—as though “a wise God.”
The village of his birth was called Areopagus because Mars was worshiped there as a god. For the name is said to come from Ares, which means Mars, and pagus, which means village, as though “the village of Mars.”
While Dyonisius was still a Gentile, he saw that the eclipse of the sun which occurred during Christ’s Passion was contrary to nature. At that time he was in Eliopolym, a city of Egypt, with Appollophanus, a very great astrologer.
As Dyonisius himself relates in writing to Polycarp, he said: “This night, which we marvel at as new, signifies the coming light of the whole world.”
The philosophers at Athens, however, said: “The God of nature suffers.” Or, according to others, they said: “Either the order of nature is overturned, or the elements deceive us, or the God of nature suffers and the elements suffer with him.”
The eclipse of the sun at Christ’s Passion was contrary to nature for three reasons. First, the moon was then on its fifteenth day and therefore at its greatest distance from the sun. Second, the eclipse was universal throughout the whole world at the same hour. It occurred at Eliopolym in the East, as Dyonisius relates, and at Rome in the West, as Orosius relates. Third, it lasted longer than a natural eclipse, from the sixth hour to the ninth, as the Evangelists write, and thus for three hours.
Because of this marvel, the Athenian philosophers caused a new altar to be erected in honor of the one on whose account so unnatural an eclipse had happened. They placed this inscription upon it: “An altar to the unknown God.”
[Running head: Chapter Twenty-Eight, Folio 212.]
Paul the Apostle therefore went to Athens, where there were diverse sects of philosophers: the Epicureans, who placed blessedness in pleasure, and the Stoics, who asserted that happiness consists in virtue of soul. He preached and disputed with them. Among them was Dyonisius, a most eminent philosopher.
Paul looked at the altars of their gods and their inscriptions. When he read upon one the inscription “An altar to the unknown God,” Paul said to Dyonisius: “Who is the unknown god to whom this altar is dedicated?”
Dyonisius replied: “He has not yet been shown to us, but he is unknown and will appear in a future age. He is the God who will reign in heaven and on earth, and his kingdom will receive no end.”
Paul asked: “What do you think? Will he be a man or a spirit of the gods?”
Dyonisius answered: “He will be true God and true man. He will renew the world, but he is still unknown to men, and his dwelling is in heaven with God.”
Then Paul said: “I preach to you that God whom you call unknown.” He began to preach the Incarnation, the Passion, and the other mysteries of the faith.
By chance a certain blind man passed by. Dyonisius said to Paul: “If in the name of this one whom you proclaim and assert to be God you give this man sight, I shall believe entirely.”
The Apostle replied: “Lest you doubt that this is done by magic or by any power other than that of Jesus Christ, you yourself pronounce these words to him: ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, receive sight.’”
When Dyonisius said them, the blind man received sight. Dyonisius abandoned the idols, converted to the faith, and was baptized with his wife Damaris and his household.
Instructed by Paul, Dyonisius remained with him for three years. He learned from him many things concerning the heavenly realities Paul had seen in rapture and was finally ordained by Paul as bishop of the Athenians. There Dyonisius converted the greatest part of the country to the faith.
Afterward he appointed another bishop in his own place and went to Rome. After the apostles’ passion, Saint Clement the pope sent him into France with the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius. He hastened to the city of Paris, which was more devoted to idols than other cities.
After many people had been converted there, a church built, and clergy of several orders added to it, so great a heavenly grace shone in Dyonisius that the priests of the idols frequently stirred popular uprisings against him and sent innumerable armed crowds to seize him. Yet as soon as they saw him, they cast aside all ferocity and prostrated themselves before him, or, overcome by excessive fear, fled from his presence.
The devil, seeing with envy that his worship was being so thoroughly destroyed by the saints’ preaching, moved Emperor Domitian to so great a persecution of the faithful that he issued an edict commanding Christians, wherever found, either to be forced to sacrifice to idols or to be killed with various torments.
The prefect Festenninus was therefore sent from Rome against the Christians. Finding Dyonisius preaching to the people, he had him seized together with Rusticus and Eleutherius, struck with fists, spat upon, mocked, and bound with the hardest thongs, and ordered them presented before him.
As Dyonisius answered steadfastly before him, behold, a certain noblewoman persistently sought her husband Lubius, who had been led astray by those magicians. When he was summoned, he was killed at his first confession of the faith. The saints, in turn, were scourged most severely by twelve soldiers, loaded with chains, and thrust into the theater as their prison.
On the following day Dyonisius was stretched naked upon an iron grate with flames placed beneath it. Emerging unharmed, he was cast to exceedingly fierce beasts maddened by a long fast. As they rushed violently upon him, they suddenly became tame when he opposed them with the sign of the cross.
He was again cast into a furnace, but when the fire was immediately extinguished, he suffered nothing. He was tormented for a longer time upon the cross. Taken down from it, he was cast into prison with many faithful people.
There, after a long exhortation to the people, while he celebrated Mass so that the faithful might receive Communion, the Lord appeared to him in immense light. Taking bread, the Lord gave it to him, saying: “Receive this, my dear one, for your reward is very great with me.”
They were thereafter presented to the judge, wasted by new torments, and encouraged one another for this purpose. Finally, after praying on bended knees, Dyonisius was beheaded.
Led by an angel and preceded by heavenly light, he carried his head between his arms from the place called the Mount of Martyrs as far as the Church of Saint Dyonisius. There, by his own choice and God’s providence, he now rests.
The company of angels sang so great a melody that many who heard it believed and were converted to the faith. Among them was the wife of the aforementioned Lubius. Crying out that she was a Christian, she was killed by the impious and baptized in her own blood.
A certain noble and faithful matron feared that the saints’ killers would cast their bodies into the nearby river. She invited the killers to a solemn banquet and detained them as they occupied themselves with the immediate pleasure of feasting. Meanwhile she had the saints’ bodies buried far away in a field. After the fury of persecution had subsided, she caused them to be raised honorably.
They suffered in the year of the Lord 96. Dyonisius was ninety years old.
In the Decrees, Distinction 38, Omnes, it is said: “The utterances divinely handed down are the substance of the mouth of the priesthood, as the great Dyonisius declares.” They are understood to be its substance not because the priesthood consists in them, but because it is sustained and rightly governed by them in the exercise of its office. In the same way, temporal goods are called a person’s substance because one is nourished by them.
This Dyonisius published several books in Greek, translated by others into Latin: the book On the Celestial Hierarchy, the book On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, the book On the Divine Names, and the book On Mystical Theology.
§ I: Saintininus and Antoninus
This Dyonisius ordained a certain disciple of his named Saintininus as bishop and sent him to preach at Carnotum. He designated him bishop of Meldensium and gave him Antoninus as companion and helper.
As they hastened toward Italy, Antoninus was seized by fever. Saintininus served him for several days. Antoninus desired that Saintininus fulfill the command of their master Dyonisius, for Dyonisius had commanded them to carry the carefully written account of his passion to the supreme pontiff, who would also make it known to the Athenians.
Saintininus left their host enough to care for Antoninus, whether he remained sick, recovered, or died, and then entered Roman territory. In spirit he saw that his companion Antoninus had died and that the host had raised the plank of his stable pit and cast him into the place where dung and urine flowed.
Saintininus returned with the greatest haste and asked the host about his companion. With feigned sadness the man said that Antoninus had died and that he had buried him honorably.
“You lie, son of the devil,” Saintininus said. “You cast him upon the dunghill.”
Struck with fear, the man raised the plank. Saintininus said: “Brother Antoninus, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for whose love Dyonisius suffered, arise, and let us complete our obedience.”
[Running head: Sixth Title.]
Antoninus rose from the dead and went with Saintininus to the city of Meaux. There Saintininus, full of faith and good works, finally passed to the heavenly kingdom. Antoninus succeeded him in the episcopate and rested in a like faith.
§ II: Caurannus
Caurannus, a Roman by birth, was instructed for a long time with Blessed Dionysius. After preaching the Gospel in various places, he was six hundred miles from Carnotum when he saw sons of Belial coming to meet him. They thought that he and his companions were carrying a great sum of money.
His companions trembled and fled, with the pursuers following them. Preferring to perish alone rather than let all his companions die, Caurannus cried: “Do not destroy the innocent. The money you seek is with me.”
All those robbers therefore ran to him alone, but found only the single solidus he had reserved for his journey. Angered by this, they cut off his head.
Regulus, a companion of Dionysius, was of noble Greek ancestry and a hearer of John the Evangelist. For a time he abandoned his great riches and distributed them to the poor. He afterward heard Dionysius at Athens and came with him from Rome to the city of Arelatensium. Because of the inhabitants’ ready conversion, Blessed Dionysius appointed him bishop there.
After the Lord’s Prayer had been completed and the apostles’ names recited, Regulus added, “and your blessed martyrs Dionysius, Rusticus, and Eleutherius.” When he had said this, he was stunned and wondered why he had spoken these words contrary to custom. He saw three doves resting above the altar cross, bearing the martyrs’ names written upon their breasts. From this he understood that their martyrdom had been accomplished just as he had learned.
Inflamed with desire for martyrdom, Regulus established a most blessed bishop there. After visiting the holy martyrs’ relics, he entered Silvanectum. Many people had assembled before an image of Mercury. Making the sign of the cross, he struck it with his staff and destroyed it. He converted many people as a result, freed a boy possessed by a demon, and even freed his donkey when a demon invaded it. At last he rested in the Lord.
Ionius came from the region of Athens with Blessed Dionysius. While preaching the Gospel near Parasius, he used raw herbs for food and cold water for drink. During Lent he took food twice a week. After pagans cut off his head, he carried it in his hands for one mile, following a light sent from heaven, to the place where he now rests.
§ III: Dionysius’s Account of Eutropius
This Dionysius wrote in Greek letters an account of Blessed Eutropius’s passion, which had been accomplished in France while Eutropius was still living. He arranged for the writing to be sent by the hands of Blessed Clement the pope to Eutropius’s parents in Greece, who had already believed in Christ.
Pope Calixtus II found it at Constantinople in the school of the Greeks and caused it to be translated into Latin, as Vincent relates in Book 11, Chapter 18 of the Historical Mirror.
Eutropius was born a Gentile and sprang from a most eminent family. Xerxes, a Babylonian of admirable name, and Queen Guma begot him according to the flesh.
In childhood he was instructed in Greek and Chaldean letters. He went to King Herod in Galilee in hopes of learning something remarkable, and remained at his court for some time. When he heard of the Savior’s miracles, he greatly desired to see him.
When Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee, Eutropius happened to be present when Christ satisfied five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. He greatly desired to speak to him but feared offending a certain Nichanor who had been assigned as his tutor.
Returning from there to his parents’ house, he began to tell his father: “I saw a man called Christ, whose like cannot be found in the whole world. He gives life to the dead, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, walking to the lame, cleansing to lepers, and health to every kind of sick person. Why say more? In my presence he satisfied five thousand people with five loaves and two fish.”
Hearing this, his father Adimundus considered how he might see this Jesus.
Not long afterward Eutropius obtained his father’s permission and, desiring to see the Lord Jesus again, went to Jerusalem with a suitable retinue for the purpose of worshiping at the Temple. Many Gentiles coming from diverse regions did the same.
On Palm Sunday he saw the Lord Jesus accompanied by a very great crowd. Boys cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” and spread many flowers and branches of palms and olives in the road as he was about to enter Jerusalem. Eutropius followed with the others, but became sad because the crowd made it difficult for him to see Jesus.
He therefore approached the Apostle Philip with many other Gentiles and said to him, “Lord, we wish to see Jesus.” When this was granted them, Eutropius rejoiced greatly and from that time secretly believed in Christ. He then returned to his own country.
When he learned that the Jews had killed Jesus, he grieved greatly; but when he heard of his Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, he rejoiced. In zeal for his love of Christ and in vengeance for Christ’s killing by the Jews, he caused all the Jews found in Babylon to be killed.
After the glorious apostles Simon and Judas went to Babylon to preach Christ and confirmed their teaching by many miracles, Eutropius was filled with joy. He not only believed perfectly and received baptism himself, but also exhorted the king of Babylon to abandon the error of paganism and the Jews’ superstitions and receive the Christian faith, so that he might deserve to attain heaven’s kingdom. This came to pass.
After their conversion, the apostles made Abdias, whom they had brought with them from Jerusalem, a bishop. Not many days later the apostles were crowned with martyrdom, as was said above. Eutropius committed the account of their passion to Chaldean and Greek letters.
When he heard the fame of the miracles through which the prince of the apostles shone at Rome, Eutropius left his parents and country and went to Rome. Blessed Peter received him honorably. After Eutropius had remained with him for some time and had been more fully instructed in all the mysteries, he entered the region of Gaul with other brothers on Peter’s counsel.
When he entered the city called Sanctonas, he ran through its streets and lanes, urgently preaching God’s word. As soon as the citizens recognized that he was a foreigner and heard him preaching things unknown to them, they indignantly burned him with torches, beat him with poles, and cast him outside the city.
Patiently enduring these injuries, he made a wooden hut on a certain hill beside the city and lived in it for some time. By day he nevertheless descended to the city to instruct it by preaching, and at night he remained in the hut with tears, vigils, and prayers.
When after a very long time he had drawn only a few to the Lord Jesus Christ’s faith, he went to Rome again. He found that Peter had already suffered on the cross. Received in temporal succession by Blessed Clement, he was sent into Gaul with Dionysius and his companions.
When they parted from one another with tearful embraces and greetings, Dionysius went with his companions to Parasius. Eutropius returned to Sanctonas. There, filled with zeal for Christ, he persisted in preaching in season and out of season, converted many, and baptized them.
Among them was Castella, daughter of the lord of that city. Because of this her father abominated her and sent her outside the city. This girl, bearing all things calmly for Christ, humbly chose to remain in a small dwelling beside the holy man’s hut rather than abound in delights with her parents in the palace while sacrificing to idols.
Her impious father saw that neither flatteries nor threats could recall her from her resolution of faith. Driven by fury against Eutropius, he ordered the city’s executioners to stone the saint and beat him with clubs and leaded scourges. Finally they killed him in the hut by crushing his head with an axe. He was buried there at that time.
After the persecutions against Christians had ceased and that country had converted to Christ, a huge basilica was built there in his honor. His body rests there, shining with frequent miracles.
§ IV: Eugenius
Eugenius, sent by Blessed Dionysius from among his companions to preach to the people of Tolletanis, converted that barbarous nation. Desiring to see Blessed Dionysius, he set out on the road. When he was four miles from Parasius, he met certain soldiers.
They asked what god he worshiped. When he answered that he worshiped Christ, he merited martyrdom by beheading.
Taurinus was born of a Christian mother and a Gentile father. Baptized by Pope Clement and the spiritual son of Dionysius, he was led by him into Gaul and finally became bishop of the city of Ebroicensis.
While Taurinus preached in the house of a citizen named Lucius, the devil seized the man’s daughter and cast her into a fire. When Taurinus raised her from death, no trace of burning remained upon her.
After he had baptized many and worked a great many miracles, he one day said to Gentiles entering Diana’s shrine to worship: “Behold your goddess. Ask her to help you.”
Diana’s priests stood prostrate, saying: “Holy and most invincible Diana, avenge us and yourself upon this sorcerer.”
The demon hidden within answered: “Cease, wretches; cease to invoke me. Since this man, servant of the most high God, entered here, I have been bound with fiery chains. I would not have dared speak unless he had commanded it.”
Taurinus said to the people: “Do you wish to see your goddess?” He therefore commanded the demon dwelling in the statue to depart and show itself to the people.
It came out and was seen by everyone in the form of an exceedingly black Ethiopian, with a long beard and fiery sparks vomiting from its mouth. Seeing this, everyone prostrated themselves at the saint’s feet and begged him to free them from that horrible beast.
An angel of the Lord appeared, bound the beast, and led it away. The idols were then destroyed and churches consecrated.
§ V: Saint Thecla
The history of Saint Thecla, a disciple of the Apostle Paul, is given by Vincent in Book 10, Chapter 47 of the Historical Mirror. But because it is numbered among the apocryphal writings in Distinction 15, Sancta Romana, it will be abridged.
When the Apostle Paul came from Antioch to Ychonium, he had with him Demas and Alexander the coppersmith as companions, but they were feigned disciples, as he himself relates in his epistles.
Hearing of Paul’s arrival, Honestiferus went with his household to meet him. Titus had told him the signs by which to know Paul. Seeing among the others a man short in stature, with an aquiline nose and an angelic countenance, Honestiferus humbly greeted him alone.
The men accompanying Paul were indignant that Honestiferus had not greeted them too. He answered that he did not see in them the fruit of righteousness.
Paul entered Honestiferus’s house and continually preached about all the fruits of virtue. The virgin Thecla, already betrothed to Tamirus, sat at the window of a house very near his and listened to Paul preaching. She was so moved and overcome by his speech, although she did not know his face, that she did not leave the window for three days because she wished to hear him.
Seeing this, her mother Theodia sent for Tamirus, Thecla’s betrothed. Lamenting that the daughter had been led astray, he accused Paul.
When Thecla’s mother and betrothed could not recall her from the resolution she had conceived to believe in Christ, Paul was arrested and led to prison. Thecla followed him to the prison. Seeing her affection for Paul, they accused both and presented them to the judge. Paul was scourged and driven from the city. Thecla was condemned to fire and leapt voluntarily into the flames.
Immediately, however, rain from heaven extinguished the fire. So great an earthquake followed that many died. Escaping in this way, Thecla went to Honestiferus’s house, where Paul remained hidden.
Filled with joy at seeing him, she wished to cut her hair and assume a man’s clothing so that she might freely follow him, being most eager for his teaching. Paul did not permit this, fearing that some sudden temptation might befall her, for she was exceedingly beautiful.
Paul therefore went to Antioch, and Thecla followed him. A certain Alexander, a leading man of Antioch, was attracted by Thecla’s beauty and began to promise Paul many things if Paul would surrender her to his pleasure. Paul wholly refused.
Carried away by lust, Alexander publicly embraced her. Unable to bear the injury, she tore his cloak. Embarrassed by this, he had her presented to the judge as though she had committed sacrilege.
When she confessed what she had done, she was condemned to the beasts. Until she was delivered to be devoured by them, the judge entrusted her for safekeeping and propriety to a very wealthy matron named Trifena, whose daughter had recently died.
Thecla was placed in a cage before a lioness. The lioness, however, laid aside all ferocity and licked Thecla’s feet while all the people watched and marveled.
She was again cast to the fiercest beasts, but the lioness lay at her feet and strangled a bear that rushed against her. An exceedingly fierce lion was also sent to tear her apart. The lioness met it, fought with it for a long time, and both lion and lioness died together.
Thecla was then cast naked into a deep pit filled with water to be drowned and devoured by sea beasts. A cloud appeared above her and covered her so that people could not see her. The beasts inflicted no injury whatever upon her.
They led out two exceedingly fierce bulls, fastened burning plates to them, bound Thecla to the bulls, and exposed her to be consumed. Yet she was harmed in no way.
Freed from all these dangers and desiring to see her master Paul, Thecla cut her hair and assumed a man’s clothing to seek him. She came with certain others to Paul, who feared that some temptation had befallen her. Understanding this, she reassured him by saying that she had been baptized, and thus entered his lodging.
Finally, with Paul’s permission, she returned to Ychonium after the death of her betrothed Tamirus. When she could not bring her mother to the faith, Thecla went to Seleutia, converted many by preaching, and at last rested in peace.
[Running head: Seventh Title.]
§ VI: Other Illustrious Disciples of Paul
As is apparent from the martyrology, several other eminent and illustrious men were disciples of Paul. Among them was Timothy, to whom Paul wrote two epistles.
The priest Polycrates writes of him as follows. Timothy was born in the city of Listris in Lichaonia and was instructed by the Apostle Paul. Having become his fellow traveler, he came with him to the most splendid metropolis of the Ephesians. He was the first to obtain the episcopate there, while Nero reigned among the Romans. There he shone in teachings, miracles, and conduct.
He became not only a spectator and hearer of Paul but also of the glorious theologian John the Evangelist.
When remnants of the former idolatry still remained at Ephesus, Saint Archbishop Timothy ran into the middle of the portico on the day of their abominable festival and exhorted them, saying: “Men of Ephesus, do not rave in idolatry, but clearly acknowledge him who is God.”
The devil’s workers were indignant and killed the just man with clubs and stones. God’s servants carried him, still breathing, to a mountain beside the city. There he rested in peace while Nerva was emperor.
On the fourth day before the Kalends of January, the feast of Saint Trophimus is celebrated at Arelatum. Paul mentions him in writing to Timothy. Ordained bishop by that same Apostle, he was the first sent to the aforesaid city to preach Christ’s Gospel. As Pope Zozimus writes, all Gaul received streams of faith from his fountain.
Likewise, on the day before the Nones of January is the feast of Blessed Titus. Ordained bishop of the Cretans by the Apostle, he most faithfully fulfilled the office of preaching, obtained a blessed end, and was buried there. The Apostle also wrote an epistle to him.
Likewise, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March is the feast of Saint Onesimus, of whom the Apostle writes to Philemon. The same Apostle adorned him as bishop, entrusted him with the word of preaching, and left him at the city of the Ephesians. He was finally brought to Rome and stoned there for Christ’s faith. His body was returned to the place where he had been appointed bishop.
Likewise, on the fourth day before the Kalends of June at Rome is the feast of Saint Potentiana, virgin. After innumerable struggles, after reverently performing the burial rites of many martyrs, and after distributing all her possessions to the poor for Christ, she finally passed to heaven.
On the same day Blessed Prudens, father of that virgin, also made his passage to Christ. Clothed by Christ’s apostles in baptism with the garment of innocence, he preserved an immaculate life until he received the crown.
Praxedes, a holy virgin, daughter of that Prudens and sister of Potentiana, performed many pious works and concealed the faithful in her house during the persecution, feeding them with word and food. After burying many faithful people, she finally rested in the Lord. Their brothers were Novatus and Timothy.
Likewise, on the fifth day before the Kalends of July in Galatia is the feast of Saint Crescens, a disciple of Saint Paul the Apostle. While making his passage into Gaul, he converted many to the faith by the word of preaching. Returning to Galatia, where he had been appointed bishop, he completed the end of his life in good work.
Likewise is the feast of Saint Epaphras. Ordained by the Apostle Paul as bishop of Collosis and illustrious in miracles, he merited the palm of martyrdom for the sheep entrusted to him by a manly contest.
Likewise, on the day before the Ides of December at Narbonam is the feast of Saint Paul the confessor. Paul the Apostle ordained and sent him as bishop of that city. Traveling with the Apostle himself into Hyspaniam for the sake of preaching, he was left there. After diligently fulfilling the office of evangelizing and becoming illustrious in miracles, he rested crowned.
Likewise there is Erastus, of whom Paul writes at the end of First Corinthians. Paul sent him with Timothy from Asia into Macedonia. Left by Paul himself as bishop at Philippi, he was crowned there with martyrdom.
Likewise Crispus and Gayus, whom Paul mentions in the first chapter of First Corinthians, rested in the Lord at Corinth.