DIONYSIUS the Areopagite. We read in the Acts of the Apostles, that St. Paul being obliged to depart from Beræa, a city in Macedonia, for fear of falling into the hands of the Jews, who were come from Thessalonica to stir up the people against him, went into Achaia, and from thence to Athens. While he was there waiting for Silas his companion, and Timothy his disciple, his spirit was moved, and as it were enraged within him, to see so celebrated a city so passionately addicted to idolatry. He had many conferences with several of the Philosophers upon matters of Religion, particularly with the Epicureans and Stoicks. The former ridiculed his discourses; the others said, it seemed to be his design to introduce a new Religion, and declare new Gods to them, because he preached Jesus Christ and the Resurrection. They took him therefore and led him to the Areopagus, saying, you tell us things so new and extraordinary, that we should be glad to know the meaning of them; for the Athenians were taken up intirely with hearing and repeating news.
Paul therefore being come to the Areopagus, told them, that as he passed through their city, and observed the Statues of their Gods, he took notice of an Altar with this Inscription, To the unknown God: I come therefore to publish that to you, which you do not know; the God who made the Universe, and every thing included in it, being Lord of Heaven and Earth. He dwelleth not in Temples built by men; he is not honoured by the works of human hands, as if he stood in need of his creatures, who gives life, and breath, and all things to all. He with one word only produced the whole race of Mankind; he gave them the whole extent of the earth for their abode, having determined the times and seasons, and set forth the limits of every people’s habitation: to the end that they might seek him and come to the knowledge of him by those very things which fall under their senses, being otherwise not far from every one of us; for in him and by him we have life, motion and being; and as some of their own Poets have said, We are the offspring of God.
Since therefore we are his Children, and descended from him, we should not believe his Divinity to be like gold and silver, or precious stones, wherewith the art and industry of men have formed images of him. But God in his anger having permitted these times of ignorance to pass, has now caused it to be published to all men in all places, that they should repent, because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World in righteousness by him whom he hath ordained Judge of it, whereof he hath given a certain proof to all men, by raising him from the dead.
In the year of J. C. 53, of the Vulgar Æra 56.When they heard the resurrection of the dead mentioned, some mocked, and others said they would hear him some other time upon this point; wherefore St. Paul departed out of their assembly. Nevertheless some adhered to him, and embraced the faith; among whom was Dionysius a Senator of the Areopagus, a woman whose name was Damaris, and with them several others. This is what St. Luke relates to us in the Acts, and is almost all we know of St. Dionysius the Areopagite. Some have been of opinion that Damaris was his wife, but of this we have no certain proof. St. Chrysostom declares Dionysius to have been a Chryf. l. 4. de Sacerdotio, c. 7. Chryf. de Sacerdot. l. 4. c. 7. Cæsar. Dialog. qu. 112.citizen of Athens, which is very credible, because the Judges of the Areopagus were not generally chosen out of any others. There are Authors who tell us that he was of Thrace, but of this one witness only is cited, and he not very capable of persuading us. The great reputation of the justice, integrity, and wisdom for which the Judges of the Areopagus are said to have been remarkable, is a strong prejudice in favour of the virtue and merit of Dionysius. After his conversion he was made the first Bishop of Athens, and having labour’d much in the defence and propagation of the Gospel, and suffered a great deal in the same cause, he crowned his life and confession with a glorious martyrdom. He is said to have been burnt at Athens in the year of Jesus Christ 95. The Greeks keep his festival on the third day of October. The Latins, since the time of Lewis the Debonnaire, are persuaded, that Dionysius the Areopagite, first Bishop of Athens, is the same with Dennis first Bishop of Paris. A great deal was written on this subject in the last Age; at present indeed those disputes seem to have ceased, and the distinction of the two Saints has been acknowledged. I say nothing here of the works whereof Dionysius the Areopagite is supposed to be the Author; they have no relation to my subject, and besides they are reputed among learned men at present to be intirely spurious.