CONCERNING SAINT DIONYSIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF THE BULGARIANS, BURIED NEAR KIEV IN RUSSIA.
From the Slavo-Russian Synaxary.
A.D. 1180.
CommentaryDionysius, Archbishop of the Bulgarians, near Kiev in Russia (S.)
D. P.
That the Christian faith was, toward the close of the tenth century, planted in Russia by Greek Doctors sent down from Constantinople, He flourished under the Emperor Manuel, an Orthodox, I taught in the Preface to the Greco-Muscovite Ephemerides, before the first volume of May, number 12: and because the Greeks were then most excellently joined with the Roman Church, I judged that the same faith was not so soon, as some think, obscured with the errors introduced together with the schism. But because the nation was rude, it behooved that from time to time it be confirmed in the religion received through Apostolic men, sent thence, whence also it was wont to receive confirmation from its Metropolitans. Among these in the 12th century was this holy Dionysius, whom the Synaxary of the year 1679, brought to us thence by the Baron de Sparwenfelt and rendered into Latin, after the name of our holy Father David of Thessalonica thus sets forth: Likewise S. Dionysius, Archbishop of Suzdal, who in the city of Nizhny Novgorod built the Pechersk monastery, and died at Kiev, laid up in the subterranean catacombs, in the year 1180 under Manuel.
[2] The Emperor of Constantinople Manuel, or Emmanuel Comnenus, reigned, therefore he also himself orthodox, from the year 1135 up to October of the year 80, constantly adhering to the union of the Roman Church, and using the Roman Pontiffs much and officiously; there is praised also the excellent virtue and faith of those whom he had first and last of the Patriarchs. Namely Michael Oxites, Cosmas of Aegina, and Theodosius; of whom the first, out of desire for the beloved solitude, from which he had been withdrawn, ceded his dignity; the second, endowed also with the spirit of prophecy, foretold death to Contostephanus, as also the Patriarchs of CP. of his time: who lifted his hand against him, and to the Empress the lack of male offspring, as is to be read in Nicetas Choniates; the third, when he constantly opposed himself to the Emperor, who wished to innovate something in Theology; the Emperor threatened, that the sentence being communicated with the Pope of old Rome, and a greater synod being convened, he would take care that the matter and question be considered and decided. But this he does for this reason, that it may be understood, how greatly each party of the disputants made of the authority of the Roman Pontiff, without whose assent they did not believe an Ecumenical Synod could be convened.
[3] But that Dionysius was Archbishop of the Bulgarians, and therefore passed into Russia for no other cause than that of the Gospel, and of the Bulgarians, whose Archbishop he is proved to have been, I gather from the very title of Archbishop of Suzdal: for neither does Russia have any Archbishops, besides its own Metropolitan; nor a city to which the name Suzdal belongs. But Nicetas Curopalates, in his work On the Offices, after the Exposition of Andronicus Palaeologus, who began to reign in the year 1283, concerning the Order of the Metropolitans subject to the Throne of the Patriarch of Constantinople, passing to those who afterward from Archbishops and Bishops were made Metropolitans; Sugdaea, he says, and Phullae were two Archbishoprics; but being united they were made one Metropolis, and therefore it is called of Sugdaea and of the Phullae. But to this very closely approaches the name Sugda or Sugdala, and this was an Archiepiscopal city long before the times of Andronicus. But, you will say, how will this be proved to have been in Bulgaria? Thus asserts Michael Antonius Baudrand in his Geography: but I still inquire whence the author drew this: yet to tell the truth I conjecture from this, that in the ancient Notices of the Provinces, produced in the sacred Geography of Charles of S. Paul, Bulgaria nowhere appears; and so neither its Bishops and Archbishops, whose Sees therefore it is no wonder not to be found there, of what kind soever were then both Sugdaea and Phullae, and others in Curopalates. Concerning the Kievan catacombs, from the relation of William Vassor, I treated on the 2nd of June, having set out for Russia for the cause of the faith. where, treating of S. John the Martyr of Bialagrod, I took occasion to describe the Pechersk monastery, to which those properly pertain, half a mile below Kiev. The cause for which he was buried there, we cannot divine more honorable, than the zeal of establishing among the Muscovites the religion, still recent; which, joined with great sanctity of life, God adorned with many miracles, and so rendered him venerable to the Muscovites, even after death and burial.