ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 26th of December
SAINT DIONYSIUS, POPE AND CONFESSOR
Saint Dionysius [St Denis] was a priest of the church of Rome, under the pontificates of Stephen and Sixtus II. The latter having received the crown of martyrdom under Valerian, on August 6, 258, through the violence of the persecution, the holy see continued vacant almost a year, till our saint was chosen pope on July 2, 259.
"AN ADMIRABLE MAN"
St Dionysius of Alexandria styles him an admirable man, and a person eminently learned. St Basil wonderfully extols his charity, which he extended to the most remote provinces of the empire.
HE WROTE A LETTER OF COMFORT TO THEM
When the Goths had plundered Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia, and carried away most of its inhabitants into captivity, the good pope wrote to that city a letter of comfort, and sent messengers with large sums of money to ransom the captives.
Our saint condemned Sabellius, etc., in a council at Rome, and afterwards confuted the blasphemies of Paul of Samosata.
HIS ELEGANT WRITINGS
St Athanasius and St Basil made use of his elegant writings to prove the divinity of the Son, and the latter also that of the Holy Ghost.
St Athanasius testifies, that the three hundred fathers at Nice, in defending the Catholic faith used no new expressions, but those which they received from the foregoing pastors of God’s church, copying particularly those of Dionysius of Rome, and his namesake of Alexandria. This holy pope died on December 26, 269.
Source: Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Dionysius may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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