Dearest brothers, the divine goodness has deigned today to renew the holy and glorious festival, worthy of all veneration, of our most blessed Father and most holy shepherd Dionysius, our beloved. This festival we believe to be proclaimed no less in the heavens, while it is devoutly venerated on earth even by us sinners; for although the soul of Christians shares in all the solemnities of the saints, yet in the festival of our leader and Father we ought to keep watch in a more proper and particular way, so that where the chief martyr and pontiff's departure was glorified, there on the day of his martyrdom there may be the chief place of gladness. Yet whatever is rendered by us to his service, let it be referred to the praise of his Author and ours.
For as your own devout presence, brothers, testifies, you understand that the return of this day pertains to a common gladness, while, about to celebrate the honour, you flock together to the annual feast of your shepherd; for we believe that you draw near to the divine clemency by the prayers of the Father present, with a more abundant devotion, while with diligent zeal you assemble for his holy vigils; for he does not desert your devotion, whose reverence has gathered you. Indeed, brothers, like a loving father he rejoices together in your holy services, and exults in the number of his own sons. O festival of our holy Father, worthy of our veneration! O truly blessed solemnity, to be set forth with great praises, concerning which the angels join in praising the Lord among the stars!
The assembly of priests resounds with great honour, and the choir of martyrs proclaims the palm of victory, in which mouths long closed are unlocked on earth, the blinded eyes of the blind return, while the dreadful stains of sins are washed away, and the prayers of all the pious are received as accomplished deeds. For although, dearest brothers, with the revolving circuit of the year his sacred vigils seem to us to be renewed, and to the Christian peoples through the spaces of times they are new and astonishing, yet, to the glory of Christ, they remain daily with us in their virtues, and are to be praised. For who, coming here sick, will not depart healed? Who, weighed down by the burden of his sins, will with a groan declare himself guilty, and not obtain indulgence?
Surely, as I believe, the prophet had beheld the festival of this day long beforehand, when he said to the Lord: Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place of the dwelling of your glory (Ps. 25:8). And worthily proclaiming the sacred passing of our most blessed Father, and praising the Lord together, he said: Blessed is he whom you have chosen and taken up, O Lord; he shall dwell in your courts (Ps. 64:5). For the divine condescension bestowed upon this man, beloved, a great and admirable gift after the apostles, to whom, when it granted him the power of his might, it declared what glory would be with him.
This man altogether, my brothers, this is that blessed and truly praiseworthy priest and martyr of Christ, Dionysius the Areopagite, whom the Acts of the Apostles commemorate, a citizen of the Athenians, sprung from noble lineage, instructed from infancy in the rudiments of dialectic and rhetorical studies, born on the island of Dia in the province of Attica. He was called the Areopagite for this reason, that in that same place which is called the Areopagus he had been educated in liberal letters, and had not only learned the same wisdom of that same people, but was its most learned teacher above others. But, with the help of his own mercy who deigned to promise through the prophet, saying: Open your mouth and I will fill it (Ps. 80:11), and who willed the mouths even of a brute beast to be loosed,
I believed I should make known to you a few of the signs of this saint, which we believe will without doubt be pleasing to your devout souls. For some things we have learned by reading in certain Greek codices, and certain things are known to us by the report of faithful men. In the name of God, Eugippius the chief steward, to Onesiphorus the primicerius, greeting. By the conveyance of Anatolius we received the writings of your charity, in which it was inserted that, with a literary diligence, we should take care to write back to you the things noted by our memory, or recalled by the ancient tradition of the ancients, concerning the various doctrines or the variety of the sects of the Athenians, or concerning the way of life or the layout of the city of the Athenians. And among other things we found in your writings.
...how I might sketch out for you in a brief style the things that were done in the city of the Athenians themselves in the times of the apostles; or how, when the Apostle Paul came there, certain men resisted him through empty philosophies and the deceitful imaginings of things. Likewise you also requested of us that, concerning Symmachus and Apollinaris the Chronopagite, and also concerning Dionysius the Areopagite — who shone as hearers of Paul the apostle in the times of the apostles among the Athenians — I should set forth for you more clearly what I might know about them, and of what lineage among the Athenians, and from what stock, they sprang.
This, then, according to the feebleness of our talent, through times long past, as we were able to gather from the tradition of antiquity, we have directed to you through Anatolius, our son and the bearer of your letters. V. The city of Athens, situated on the border of Thrace and of the Lacedaemonians, mountainous in its lay of land, enclosed by the straits of the Ionian sea, drawn in on its left side by the Aegean main, was a renowned and ancient city, rich in the fertility of its lands, and a nurse of eloquence, mother of philosophers and of wise men; and in the abundance of its various arts and of its riches it prevailed above all other cities. It is placed here in the province of Attica, where Cecrops and Menander shone as kings of the nations;
where Apollo, and Hippocrates, and Aristotle were born, who in those very times shone throughout the whole world with the flowers of wisdom. In this time Cecrops and Menander the kings stood forth as worshippers of images, for indeed the superstitious religion of idols, first discovered among them, blazed up. The city is described as divided into five regions. The first region is the one that looks toward the Aegean sea, a mountain rising above the city, where the golden images of Saturn and Priapus are concealed with various deceptions; this region the Greeks call Chronopagium, for the Greeks call Saturn Chronos.
The second region of Athens is the one that looks toward Chios, where there was a terebinth of wondrous size, and where fauns — wild men — were worshipped by the shepherds on appointed days. The third region of the city of Athens is the one that looks toward the harbor of Neptune, where they worshipped the image of Diana and of Aegean Neptune. This place the pagans call Posidon, for the Greeks call Neptune Posidon. The fourth region of the Athenian city is where the idol of Mars and the image of Hercules were set up, which is on the hill of Tritonia: a mountain set in the midst of the city, where the gathering of the whole people came at the new moon, namely to worship Mars and Hercules, whom they adored as the most mighty gods; and this place the Greeks call the Areopagus:
for Ares in Greek is called Mars in Latin. The fifth region of the Athenian city is the one that looks toward the Sicaean gate, where the idol and image of Mercury was set up, which place is named Hermipagos, for Hermes in Greek is called Mercury. This city flourished, the noblest above all other Greek cities, in the abundance of sea and land, of forests and mountains, of rivers and verdant places; and she who was then preferred as head above the other cities, is now beaten down, crushed and overtaken by the onslaught of the nations. VI. Apollo was so called, deriving his name from the lineage of a certain Apollo, a most noble prince of the Athenians, whose father Nicolaus was a man of great talent, mighty in the study of letters, a citizen and renowned master of the Argolic art.
His son Apollo, while he was held in renown among the schools of the philosophers and turned over the authoritative libraries, and while he was given over to philosophy and to vain superstitions, heard the Apostle Paul preaching new dogmas, unheard of before. And when he was unable to resist him, he found that the doctrine which Paul taught at Athens was true. Therefore, leaving behind the vain superstitions of the nations, he fell prostrate at the feet of the Apostle and besought him that he would show him the true doctrine and the way of salvation, and he now said that he was a disciple of Christ, not of Saturn. VII. When these things had been done, on a certain day, when Paul... the Areopagus...
...when Paul had seen the Areopagus, he began to ask the blessed Dionysius what he worshipped, or to what divinities he gave service in so spacious and venerable a place. Dionysius said to him: «The gods whom our fathers worshipped, by whose power and skill mother earth is held together — these we worship, and we adore the altars which are consecrated to the name and honor of Mars and Hercules, of Mercury and Priapus.» But while Paul was surveying the individual altars and images of the false gods, among the other altars he found one altar on which was written above: «To the unknown God» (Acts XVII, 23). And Paul, turning to him and to the rest who accompanied him, asked them who that unknown god might be. Dionysius, among the others, answered him, saying:
«That god has not yet been revealed among the gods, but is unknown to us, and is to come in the age that is to come; and he himself is the God who will reign in heaven and on earth, and his kingdom shall receive no end.» Paul, asking again: «What seems to you? Will he be a man, or a spirit of the gods?» They answered, saying: «Because he is both true God and true man, and he himself is to renew the world; but he is still unknown to men, because his dwelling is among the gods in heaven.» Paul said: «That God I proclaim to you, whom until now you have held as unknown. For born of a virgin, he sits at the right hand of the Father, true God and true man, through whom all things were made. God is known in Judah, and his name is holy in Israel» (Psalm LXXV, 2).
Quemincognitumusquenunchabuistismodoeognoscite, quiaipseestsolusDeus, etpraeterillumnonestaliusDeus, quivosdemonereduxitadvitam, quicaelumetterram, hominesetangeloSinunitateregnisuiconjunxit, Qaivivificatetmortificat (1 Reg. ii, 6); quiclaudit, etnemoaperit; quiaperitetnemoclaudit (Apoc. III, 7). VIII.
«Whom until now you have held as unknown, now acknowledge, for he himself is the only God, and besides him there is no other God — he who brought you back from death to life, who joined heaven and earth, men and angels, in the unity of his kingdom; who gives life and brings death (1 Kings ii, 6); who shuts, and no one opens; who opens, and no one shuts» (Revelation III, 7). VIII.
While Paul was preaching these and many other things, and while throughout the individual temples he preached that Christ is the Son of God, Dionysius, receiving the true doctrine and the teaching of salvation, and recognizing that the idols which he served were nothing and were rather demons than gods, and perceiving plainly in Paul's teaching the Holy Spirit and the words of life, was stirred by divine grace; turning to Paul, he asked of him that he would entreat the divine mercy on his behalf, that he might be made worthy to be his disciple. And when on the next day Paul was making his journey, a certain blind man, deprived of the light of his eyes, begged to be healed by Paul's power. Then forthwith the holy apostle, made an imitator of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ, laid the cross upon his long-closed eyes, saying:
«Christ indeed, our Lord and Master, who laid clay upon the eyes of the man born blind, and he straightway was found worthy to receive light — may he himself by his own power restore light to your eyes.» Then in a wondrous manner the man born blind was found worthy to receive light to his eyes, and Paul straightway addressed him in these words, saying: «Go to Dionysius, and tell him that Paul, the servant of Christ Jesus, has sent me to you, that, mindful of your promise, you may not be slow to come to him, so that, receiving the baptism of salvation, you may be released from all the bonds of your transgressions.» Forthwith he who had received light fulfilled the words of the one commanding with obedient foot, and hastening to Dionysius, he announced to him Paul's words in order.
But Dionysius, now the chosen of the Lord, when he beheld the blind man walking with steady eyes, addressed him with these words, saying: «Are you he whom all his neighbors knew as born blind?» He answered him: «I am indeed he who was born blind, and to whom until now the light of this present life was denied. But Paul himself, who bade me come to him, having invoked the power of Jesus Christ his Master, has granted me the light of health.» Then rising at once, he hastened to the counsels of Paul's blessed command. Why do I delay longer? Forthwith he believed, and sprinkled with the wave of holy baptism, renouncing the errors of the pagans, he handed himself over to be instructed by his teachings; and thereafter, at Paul's own bidding, he preached the Gospel of Christ.
And turning many from Thessalonica to the way of salvation, he converted the greatest part of that province to the faith. IX. They say that this most blessed man too, kindled with the ardor of the Holy Spirit — when on the cross of the world the Lord hung fastened by the hands of the Jews, and the sun, dreading the death of its Lord, changed the rays of its light into the horror of dark night, and had covered the regions of the world with the night of darkness — said: «This night, which we marvel to have descended new upon our eyes, has shown that the salvation of the whole world has come.» O truly holy seer! O one truly suffused with divine light, who was so by blessed lot already pre-elected that, though not yet reborn at the sacred font, still a pagan in his members, he was able to be the herald of so great a mystery.
For since he excelled by the grace of so many gifts, he shone in all things, in the eloquence of doctrine and in the flowers of the Scriptures. The Greeks indeed report that he wrote three wondrous books: one which is called «Against Heresies,» that is, a volume against all heresies; one «On Contempt of the World and the Nine Orders of Angels»; one which, as we have heard, is kept in the archives of Constantinople. This holy man too the blessed Gregory in his homilies extols with all veneration as a true and ancient Father. X. But how, under Domitian the persecutor of Christians, he passed to those on high through the glory of martyrdom — the light of his passion has made known to you.
But we, out of the feebleness of our talent and our sluggish knowledge, not so much rashly as with happy presumption, for the love and reverence of our most holy Lord and patron, have briefly made this known to your charity for the sake of edification, knowing this: that if we have spent any service upon you, you will without doubt aid us by your prayers before the holy martyr. I reckon this also worthwhile: that amid the solemnity of so great a patron — a priest and martyr — the memory of the blessed Rusticus and Eleutherius also be recited, so that where on one day they underwent martyrdom for Christ, there on the day of their martyrdom there may be a festival worthy of veneration.
For although in the commemoration of all the holy martyrs there is cause for rejoicing, yet in the excellence of these martyrs we ought deservedly to glory the more exultantly — those whom the grace of God advanced to so high a summit among all the members of the Church, that the grace and election of Christ made them equal, their labor alike, and their end the same. XI. For these are holy men, your fathers, through whom the Gospel of Christ and the grace of salvation shone forth upon you, O Gaul; and you who were the mother of error have been made the daughter of truth.
These are your holy fathers and true shepherds, who handed you over to be fitted for the heavenly kingdom. For although, increased by many victories, you have extended the right of your dominion by land and sea, yet less is what the labor of war has brought you than what the Christian peace has subdued through the mouths of these precious martyrs. For, ignorant of the Author of your dignity, while you seemed to lord it over the other nations, you were in fact enslaved, subdued by great errors. For the more tenaciously you were bound by the devil, the more wondrously you have been set free through their sufferings. Happy are you, O Gaul, who have deserved to receive so great and such priests. Happy are you, O Paris, whose soil has deserved to be watered with the blood of such martyrs.
Behold, you are mighty in the glory of three martyrs; with their gleaming ranks the blessed rewards have surrounded you, as if they had crowned you with a diadem set with the honor of many gems. Concerning their protection, most beloved brethren, with our minds prepared after the example of their patience and the confirmation of faith, let us, as far as we are able, imitate their examples, so that the merits of the flock may attain to that place whither the fortitude of the shepherds went before. For this, dearest brethren, must be greatly provided for by us: that, when we are honored with the present festivities of the martyrs, we may be able to be joined to the future holy fellowships of these same saints.
Behold, my brethren, as you see, the bodies of the blessed martyrs are covered with the abundance of gold and gems, and those who here for Christ bowed their blessed necks to the impious, the princes of the earth now adore with bowed necks. How great a glory, then, do you think they are exalted with there, among the choirs of angels and archangels, when here their blessed corpses are extolled with such honors? XII. These things, brethren and lords, as we said above, for the solemnity of so great a day, we have taken care to convey to your ears, not so much rashly as with happy devotion, knowing that, though ignorant, yet pure devotion and faithful love has the reward of just retribution, as we ourselves have before experienced, and as our forebears have proved.
Moreover, we believe and trust that, amid all the labors of this life, in obtaining the mercy of God we shall always be aided by the prayers of these special patrons, so that, as much as we are pressed down by our own sins, so much may we be lifted up by their sacred merits. And we who are wasted away in our iniquities, may we be cherished by the prayers of our blessed Fathers the martyrs — this being granted by him himself, the eternal Son of the Father, who lives, has dominion, and reigns with him and with the Holy Spirit now and through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.