Dionysius the Areopagite

Saint Dionysius the Areopagite (/ˌdaɪəˈnɪsiəs/; Greek: Διονύσιος ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης Dionysios ho Areopagitês) was a judge at the Areopagus Court in Athens, who lived in the first century.

As related in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 17:34), he was converted to Christianity by the preaching of Paul the Apostle during the Areopagus sermon, according to Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, as quoted by Eusebius.He was one of the first Athenians to believe in Christ.

Tradition holds that earlier, at a young age, he found himself in Heliopolis of Egypt (near Cairo) just at the time of Christ's crucifixion in Jerusalem. On that Great Friday, at the time of the crucifixion of Christ, according to the gospel, "From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land." (Matthew 27:45). The young boy, Dionysius was shocked by this paradoxical phenomenon and exclaimed: "God suffers or is always despondent" ("God suffers or is lost all"). He took care to note the day and hour of this supernatural event of the darkness of the Sun.

When Dionysius returned to Athens, he heard the preaching of the Apostle Paul in the Areopagus Hill in Athens,talking about that supernatural darkness during the Crucifixion of the Lord, dissolving any doubt about the validity of his new faith. He was baptized, with his family in 52 AD. The acceptance of Dionysius of Christ refers to the Acts of the Apostles in chapter 17 and verse 34 "The men who have been sealed have believed in them, and Dionysius the Areopagite, and the name of Damaris, and the others in it." Thus, when Dionysius heard Paul preach on Christ on the Areopagus Hill in Athens, he recalled this experience which reinforced his conviction that Paul was speaking the truth on Christ as the long-promised Messiah and Savior of the World. Historical accounts wrote that when he learned that the Mother of Christ, Mary, lived in Jerusalem, he travelled to Jerusalem to meet her. From this meeting he said: "Her appearance, her features, her whole appearance testify that she is indeed Mother of God." In Jerusalem, he also discovered where Mary slept and departed this world to join her Son and her God. Then he wept sorely like the Apostles and other Church leaders torrents of tears and also attended Mary's funeral in Jerusalem. Dionysius suffered a Christian martyr's end by burning. His story was preserved by the early Christian historian, Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical history

After his conversion, Dionysius became the first Bishop of Athens. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches. He is the patron saint of Athens and is venerated as the protector of the Judges and the Judiciary. His memory is celebrated on October 3. His name day in the Eastern Orthodox Church is October 3 and in the Catholic Church is October 9.

In Athens there are two large churches bearing its name, one in Kolonaki on Skoufa Street, while the other is the Catholic Metropolis of Athens, on Panepistimiou Street. Its name also bears the pedestrian walkway around the Acropolis, which passes through the rock of the Areios Pagos.

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 the saint and is the only village of Crete with a church in honor of Saint Dionysios Areopagitis.

In the early sixth century, a series of writings of a mystical nature, employing Neoplatonic language to elucidate Christian theological and mystical ideas, was ascribed to the Areopagite. They have long been recognized as pseudepigrapha, and their author is now called "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite".

However, this disambiguation is now being questioned. Hugo Koch and Josef Stiglmayer claimed to have identified Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite as the real Dionysius. This was done by stating that a fifth century author copied some of the corpus of Proclus. This is now refuted by M. J. Carroll, who states that, in academic terms, it is impossible to come to this definitive conclusion, because Proclus could have copied the original first century works of Dionysius. It is also academically spurious to state that an erratic writing style amounts to copying, as was originally claimed. In academic terms it is impossible to make the conclusions which Koch and Stiglmayer claim, and in fact such a claim has hindered further research into the first century writers.

Dionysius has been misidentified with the martyr of Gaul, Dionysius, the first Bishop of Paris, Denis. However, this mistake by a ninth century writer is ignored and each saint is commemorated on his respective day.

• Corrigan, Kevin; Harrington, Michael. "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite".In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.