ON ST. DIONYSIUS
BISHOP OF VIENNE IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR CXC.
CommentaryDionysius, Bishop of Vienne, in Gaul (S.)
By the Author G. H.
[1] Three consecutive days in various sacred fasti
have assigned to themselves the cult and veneration
of St. Dionysius Bishop of Vienne.
And first on VII of May, Sacred cult on 7 and 8 May, the MS.
Florarium of Saints recalls him. But the Martyrology
falsely attributed to Bede, and citing it the present-day
Roman, on day VIII of May has these things: At Vienne St. Dionysius
Bishop and Confessor. On which day also the memory
of him is recalled in the MS. Martyrology of the Brussels Church
primary of St. Gudula; likewise in that printed in the year MCCCCXC at Cologne
and Lübeck; and in Greven's Auctary to Usuard in
which these things are read: At Vienne Bl. Dionysius, of the same
city the sixth Bishop and Confessor, a man most renowned
in miracles and in doctrine. The same things are read
in the German Martyrology of Canisius. The same is reported by
Molanus in the Auctary of Usuard in the second and third edition.
In Galesinus these things are indicated: At Vienne St. Dionysius,
Bishop and Confessor: who being equal of Bl. Irenaeus Bishop
of Lyon, in the Episcopal office
shone with all heavenly virtue.
[2] and 9 May, But on the ninth day of May the memory of him is prescribed in the Appendix
of Ado and in the Ancient Calendar of the Vienne Missal
or Breviary, and in this, printed about the year MDXXII,
which we have, all things are prescribed from the Common of a Confessor
and Pontiff. On which ninth day of May also in Saussay
this elogium is contained. At Vienne St. Dionysius Bishop
and Confessor, with the encomium of Saussay who being near to the Apostolic age,
successor of Justus the most illustrious herald of Christ in that
See, most learned in the science of salvation, and adorned with every
Episcopal ornament, surpassing in heavenly virtue,
abundantly instructed shone forth; and when from every side the Christian
religion and its assertors were assailed by every contrivance,
most vigilant helmsman of the little ship entrusted to him,
he overcame the raging storms of impiety, with admirable
vigor of faith, with constancy of mind, and with
incredible labor: then by happy rowing
into the port of salvation he led and conveyed the ship safe and sound, and the merchandise,
namely the souls entrusted to him, safe
and sound: and thus at last having most well discharged life and office,
he received the laurel of eternal reward.
These things from Saussay, in which there are many things suitable
to be said of any illustrious Bishop, more to be esteemed if they should be brought forward
by a coeval author and eyewitness. Of his successor mentioned
St. Justus we treated on VI of May, and we showed
him to have been crowned with martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius Verus, in the year
CLXXVIII. In the ancient Catalogue of Holy Bishops
of Vienne, which we copied at Vienne in the year MDCLXII,
these things are indicated. St. Dionysius a most renowned man
in doctrine, who flourished in the times of Marcus Aurelius,
Verus, and Commodus. He succeeded his father in the year CLXXX,
and he himself was strangled in the year CXCII, and received in the next year
successors P. Helvius Pertinax, Didius Julianus,
and Lucius Septimius Severus, who reigned a long time.
Ado Bishop of Vienne in the Chronicle has these things under
Lucius Antoninus Commodus: Dionysius, hearer of the disciples
of Christ, was governing the Vienne Church.
And under Aelius Pertinax he writes these things: Dionysius,
as we have said, the most learned Bishop of Vienne
flourished. And then under Severus he writes that St. Paracodus,
Bishop of Vienne, successor of St. Dionysius, flourished,
whose birthday we have celebrated on the very Kalends of January.
[3] In the Martyrology, which for the use of the Church of Vienne,
if it should be approved, John le Lievre wrote, this elogium
is set forth on the day IX of May: and the elogium of John le Lievre The Birthday of St. Dionysius Martyr
and Confessor, the seventh Archbishop of Vienne,
who being a man of singular doctrine and of exceptional
sanctity, in the time of the Emperor Commodus lived in
the governance of his Church, from the year CLXXVII until
the year CXCVII, to which Bl. Victor the Pope in the year CXCVII
wrote back about the celebration of Easter, as had been
defined in the Council of Alexandria, in the presence of Bl.
Irenaeus then Presbyter of the Church of Lyon, that
through all Gaul the same Dionysius, as Primate,
might so promulgate. A wholly similar epistle the same
Pope Victor wrote back to St. Paracodus the successor of the same Dionysius,
as to the Primate of Gaul. At length
our Dionysius was crowned with martyrdom under Septimius
Severus the Emperor, after he had governed his Church
for XXIII years, whom St. Eleutherius the Pope translated
into the number of Holy Martyrs and Pontiffs.
[4] These things there, which not easily will each be proved, although
he brings forward almost the same in his printed book. here discussed. For how
could St. Eleutherius, of which name there was only one Pontiff,
refer him to the number of Saints, who was
predecessor of St. Victor the Pope, and according to the said author
would necessarily have died before St. Dionysius? How
is it established that he was crowned with martyrdom, whom the Vienne
Church was wont to venerate with the Ecclesiastical office of a Confessor
Pontiff, and the alleged Martyrologies confirm, nor does Ado
even mention martyrdom in the Chronicle? How could he have governed
the Church for twenty-three years, when he is said by the same author
to have presided from the year CLXXVII until the year CXCVII?
He makes St. Irenaeus, here a Presbyter, in the printed editions Bishop:
and more correctly. But of the Council of Alexandria, held under Victor,
no mention is made elsewhere. Moreover according to the calculation
of the ancient Pontiffs, elsewhere proven by us, St. Victor presided
over the Church from the year CLXXXVI until the year CXCVII. Therefore not
in the year CXCVII did he write back to St. Dionysius about the celebration of Easter,
who about the same matter also wrote to his successor St. Paracodus,
some Acts of whom we have given on the Kalends of January
with the said Epistle, having this beginning: Our colleague
Dionysius sleeping has left you to us as a partner in the Church
of Christ: and what he prescribes about celebrating Easter,
he desires to be taught by him through the Churches committed to him, no mention being made of any Primacy through Gaul.
But the other Epistle in John a Bosco, Whether there was then any Desiderius Bishop. who published them in the Florian
Library, is not inscribed to Dionysius,
but to Desiderius Bishop of Vienne, whom the said a
Bosco establishes as having sat between Justus and Dionysius; and
therefore both would have presided not for a long time. That an error in
the title crept in writes John le Lievre, because at this
time Desiderius is not found to have sat in the Catalogues
of Bishops of Vienne: but perhaps incomplete, and
in which Desiderius could more easily have been omitted, because he was not
ascribed to the Saints. Hence we omit transcribing here the Epistle itself,
since it can be read in the said authors and in the new Councils.