Dionysius the Areopagite (/daɪəˈnɪsiəs/;Ancient Greek:Διονύσιος ὁ ἈρεοπαγίτηςDionysios ho Areopagitēs) was anAthenian judge at theAreopagus Court in Athens, who lived in the first century. A convert toChristianity, he is venerated as a saint by multiple denominations.
Dionysius the Areopagite with Thomas Aquinas, Madonna and the Child.Madonna and Child Enthroned between Angels and Saints byDomenico Ghirlandaio 1486.Διονυσίου του Αρεοπαγίτου, τα σωζόμενα πάντα, orSancti Dionysii Areopagitæ, opera omnia quæ extant [All extant works of Dionysius the Areopagite] (Venice:Antonio Zatta, 1756)
Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman namedDamaris, and others with them.
After his conversion, Dionysius became the firstBishop of Athens,[3] though he is sometimes counted as the second afterHierotheus. He is venerated as asaint in theCatholic and theEastern Orthodox churches. He is the patron saint of Athens and is venerated as the protector of judges and the judiciary. His memory is celebrated on October 3.[4]
Martyrdom of Saint Dionysios in the Menologion of Basil II (11th Century)
By the early-sixth century, theCorpus Dionysiacum, a collection of four philosophical-theological treatises that "adapted and transformed"Neoplatonic categories intoChristian mystical thought,[5] was being explicitly used and attributed to the first-century Areopagite "by just about all parties in the Christian east" (Chalcedonians,Miaphysites, andNestorians).[6] The historical origins of the documents and identity of the author are somewhat unclear before this period and have therefore been subjected to extensive historical and literary scrutiny.
Most scholars adopt a critical view of the writer asPseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.[7] Debate within Dionysian scholarship typically presupposes inauthenticity and explores possible motives for the fictional attribution—whether as an act of honorific memorialization or strategic deception.[8][9][10] The principal argument concerns the writer’s dependence on the language and thought of the fifth-century philosopherProclus, first demonstrated in articles by Hugo Koch and Joseph Stiglmayr at the turn of the twentieth century.[11][12] This position has become so widely accepted that aterminus post quem for the corpus is commonly set at Proclus’ death in 485.[13] Additional evidence cited against authenticity includes a lack of early testimony; the earliest historical mentions since the initial objections having mildly shifted fromPope Gregory I in the late sixth century[14] toSeverus of Antioch in the early sixth century.[15] Further grounds for doubt include anachronisticsacramentology,Christology, andliturgiology—notably, implausibly early references tochurch buildings andDormition traditions, along with prematurely articulated doctrines of thehypostatic union.[16]
Some modern scholars, including recent contributorEvangelos Nikitopoulos,[17][18] Romanian professorDumitru Stăniloae,[19][20] and English translatorJohn Parker,[21] argue in favor of a traditional composition date in the late first to early second century. Their case draws upon harmonizations with alleged anachronisms,[22] contemporary lexical parallels and idiosyncrasies,[23] and internal literary and historical consistency.[24][25] Most significant are the pre-Proclean references to the corpus by figures such asJohn Chrysostom andJuvenal of Jerusalem, and especially by members of theAlexandrian tradition—Pantaenus,Origen,Gregory Nazianzus, andJerome—who demonstrate familiarity with theCorpus Dionysiacum.[26] EvenProclus himself, who admitted to "summariz[ing] the observations rightly made... by some of our predecessors"[27] such as Origen,[28] appears to cite an external source for theeuphemism "flowers and supersubstantial lights"[29]—a phrase explicitly found only in Dionysius.[30] Linguistic analyses further suggest that nearly two-thirds of Dionysius' terminology lacks precedent in any known pre-sixth-century Christian or Neoplatonic text, while another quarter can be traced to ante-Nicene philosophical sources such as Platonic dialogues.[31][32][33][34] Nikitopoulos argues that this primitive theological vocabulary aligns with the intellectual profile reconstructed for another second-century Eastern convert with a pagan Greek education:Justin Martyr.[35]
Hilduin’s ninth-centuryPassio S. Dionysii mistakenly identified Dionysius with the martyred third-century bishopDionysius of Paris, a conflation generally rejected by contemporary readers and universally dismissed by modern scholars.[46][47]
In Athens there are two large churches bearing his name, one in Kolonaki on Skoufa Street, while the other is the Catholic Metropolis of Athens, on Panepistimiou Street. The pedestrian walkway around the Acropolis, which passes through the rock of the Areios Pagos, also bears his name.
Dionysius is the patron saint of the Gargaliani of Messenia, as well as in the village of Dionysi in the south of the prefecture of Heraklion. The village was named after him and is the only village of Crete with a church in honor of Saint Dionysios Areopagitis.
^Domar: The calendrical and liturgical cycle of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Armenian Orthodox Theological Research Institute, 2002, p. 528.
^Suchla, B. R. (2022). The Dionysian Corpus. In M. Edwards, D. Pallis, & G. Bechtle (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite (p. 18). Oxford University Press.
^Rorem, P., & Lamoreaux, J. C. (1998). John of Scythopolis and the Dionysian Corpus: Annotating the Areopagite (p. 11). Oxford University Press.
^von Balthasar, H. U. (1984). Denys. In The glory of the Lord: A theological aesthetics (Vol. 2, A. Louth, F. McDonagh, & B. McNeil, Trans., pp. 144–210). New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing.
^Koch, H. (1895). Proklus als Quelle des Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita in der Lehre vom Bösen. Philologus, 54(18[5]), 438–454.
^Stiglmayr, J. (1895). Der Neuplatoniker Proclus als Vorlage des sog. Dionysius Areopagita in der Lehre vom Übel. Historisches Jahrbuch, 16, 253–273, 721–748.
^Rorem, P., & Lamoreaux, J. C. (1998). John of Scythopolis and the Dionysian corpus: Annotating the Areopagite (p. 8). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press.
^Robichaud, D. J.-J. (2022). Valla and Erasmus on the Dionysian Question. In M. B. Parmentier, D. C. Baynes, & J. A. Cotton (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite (pp. 495ff). Oxford University Press.
^Suchla, B. R. (2022). The Dionysian Corpus. In M. Edwards, D. Pallis, & G. Bechtle (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite (p. 18). Oxford University Press.
^Ephrem apud Photius, Bibliotheca, no. 229 (Immanuel Bekker, ed., [Berlin: 1824], vol. 1, p. 255b.21–22). Photius vaguely mentions anonymous critics, possibly iconoclasts, who argued that the ecclesiastical rites did not fully develop until after the first century.
^Nikitopoulos, E., & Truglia, P. C. (2024). In defense of the authenticity of the Dionysian corpus (I). Revista Teologică, 105(1), 5–21.
^Nikitopoulos, E., & Truglia, P. C. (2024). In defense of the authenticity of the Dionysian corpus (II). Revista Teologică, 106(2), 5–33.
^Stăniloae, D. (1996). Sfântul Dionisie Areopagitul: Opere complete și școlile Sfântului Maxim Mărturisitorul (pp. 7–13). Bucharest: Paideia.
^Divine institution of threefold mono-episcopal structure [Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 1.2, 2.2.6, 3.2] is taken for granted in the Ignatius Corpus; pre-Nicene use ofhypóstasis for person instead of nature [Divine Names 1.4, 2.4–5, 2.11] is prevalent in Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and Philo; clerical tonsures [Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 6.2] are evidenced in both Old Testament (Num 6:18) and New Testament (Acts 18:18) religious vows
^The uncommon wordtherapeút, which shifted in meaning after post-Nicene desert ascetic traditions, is only specifically used to link monastic life with the divine monad inPhilo of Alexandria and Dionysius;leitourgói (from Heb 1:14) is strangely used for the third order of the clergy, as if the standard designationdiákonos was not yet custom; incarnational theology rarely employs the standard Nicene termenanthrṓpēsis, instead opting for odd phrases includingandrikēn zōēn ("manly life"),anthrōpikē theourgia ("human divine-work"), and evenanthrōpikōs ousiōthenta ("taking substance humanly").
^Attic form of Athenian dialect; second sophistic rhetoric (only prevalent from the mid-first century to the early-third century); interest in apathetic theology; highly stylized prose.
^Intimate acquaintance with and strong opposition to Simon Magus's doctrine; interaction with the author and contents of the Clementine Homilies; writes only to early Christians living near Athens (Apostle John; Timothy; Polycarp).
^Anthony Pavoni and Evangelos Nikitopoulos, The Life of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite. Scriptorium Press: Montreal, 2023, 14–180.
^Procli Commentarii in Parmenidem Platonis, Book VI.16 – "as one has said".
^Divine Names 2.7. In one of the Proclean manuscripts, a later scribe has even added a marginal note at this point: "Mark you: it is from the Great Dionysius".
^Sassi, N. (2017). Le fonti del lessico teologico del De Mystica Theologia dello Pseudo-Dionigi Areopagita. Textual Cultures, 11(1–2), 130–171.
^Sassi, N. (2018). Le fonti del lessico teologico delle Epistole dello Pseudo-Dionigi Areopagita. Lexicon Philosophicum, 6, 69–115.
^Jahn, A. (1889). Dionysiaca: sprachliche und sachliche Platonische Blüthenlese aus Dionysius, dem sogenannten Areopagiten. Altona/Leipzig: Verlag Von A.C. Reher.
^Corsini, E. (1962). Il trattato De Divinis Nominibus dello Pseudo-Dionigi. [Publication city and publisher not specified].
^Nikitopoulos, E., & Truglia, P. C. (2024). In defense of the authenticity of the Dionysian corpus (II). Revista Teologică, 106(2), 7.
^Rorem, P., & Lamoreaux, J. C. (1998). John of Scythopolis and the Dionysian Corpus: Annotating the Areopagite (p. 7-17). Oxford University Press.
^Maximus the Confessor, Scholia in Dionysii Areopagitae Opera, in Patrologia Graeca, vol. 4, col. 15–576
^Third Book of the Euthymiac History, as quoted in John of Damascus, Second Homily on the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, in Patrologia Graeca, vol. 96, col. 748–752
^Price, R. (2014). The Acts of the Lateran Synod of 649. Liverpool University Press, pp. 216–217.
^Hefele, C. J. (1896). A history of the councils of the Church (Vol. 5, W. R. Clark, Trans.). Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, p. 153.
^Price, R. (2018). The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787). Liverpool University Press, pp. 211–212, 471, 612.
^Ephrem apud Photius, Bibliotheca, no. 229 (Immanuel Bekker, ed., [Berlin: 1824], vol. 1, p. 255b.21–22).
^Robichaud, D. J.-J. (2022). Valla and Erasmus on the Dionysian question. In M. B. Parmentier, D. C. Baynes, & J. A. Cotton (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite (pp. 495ff). Oxford University Press.
^Martin Luther, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, sections 7.4–6, 8.3.
^Anthony Pavoni and Evangelos Nikitopoulos, The Life of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, 2nd ed. (Montreal: Scriptorium Press, 2024), 9–16.
^Perczel, I. (2015). Dionysius the Areopagite. In K. Parry (Ed.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to patristics (p. 315). Wiley Blackwell.
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