SS. DIONYSIUS, ELEUTHERIUS AND RUSTICUS, MARTYRS - 23 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 23rd of March

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SAINTS DIONYSIUS, ELEUTHERIUS AND RUSTICUS, MARTYRS

March 23 is the date of the discovery of the relics.

Their memorial is October 9.

This Saint Dionysius - the first Bishop of Paris and a martyr - has long been confused with Saint Dionysius the Aeropagite (who is discussed in a previous article); everything that historical records tell us about the latter was attributed to the former, just as everything applicable only to the former was applied to the latter.

The Saint Dionysius whom we treat here, (Saint Denis), was sent from Rome to Gaul during the earliest days of the Church to proclaim the Gospel; driven by zeal for souls, he ventured further than the others and established his see in Paris. The founding of the churches of Chartres (Carnotum) and Senlis (Silvanectum) - and later that of Cologne, as well as others that were already flourishing and governed by holy bishops in the 4th century - is attributed to him or his disciples. He founded a church in Paris and converted many idolaters to the Christian faith, but was eventually captured and beheaded alongside his companions, Saint Rusticus (a priest) and Eleutherius (a deacon).

The exact time of his death cannot be stated with certainty. Some maintain that they suffered martyrdom during the Valerian persecution around the year 272, while others (including the Bollandist* Cornelius Byeus) place their deaths at the beginning of the reign of Emperor Maximian Herculeus, who maintained his headquarters in Gaul from 286 to 292.

According to Ado (and, respectively, the Roman Martyrology*), the judge who pronounced the death sentence upon them was named Fescenninus. According to the accounts, the bodies of the holy martyrs were cast into the river Seine but were retrieved and buried by a pious woman named Catula. She built a chapel over their grave; this marked the humble beginning of the great, world-famous Abbey of Saint Denis near Paris, which later became the burial place of the kings of France. 

A major dispute once arose between the monks of the Abbey of St Denis and those of the Abbey St Emmeram in Regensburg [Germany] regarding the possession of the body of our Saint Dionysius - whom both parties believed to be Saint Dionysius the Aeropagite. This is how it came about:

The story goes that the body of Saint Dionysius was stolen and brought to Regensburg in 893 by a monk named Giselbert; to safeguard this treasure, the abbot secretly buried it within one of the church's side walls. It was subsequently discovered - perhaps during a fire or some other incident - when an inscription found with the remains identified them as belonging to that saint. While the monks of St Emmeram claimed to possess the mortal remains of the Aeropagite (who was, in fact, none other than our saint), the monks of St Denis maintained that their relics had never been lost. Given the details above, both parties were perhaps right: each possessed the genuine relics of a Saint Dionysius - the French holding that of the Aeropagite, and the Germans that of the first Bishop of Paris.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 1, Augsburg, 1858, p. 764)

*A hagiography source used by the authors 

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saints Dionysius, Eleutherius and Rusticus 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.

Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org