Saint Denis

Roman bishop

• Born: Unknown
• Birthplace: Possibly Rome (now in Italy)
• Died: c. 250
• Place of death: Near Lutetia, Gaul (now in Paris, France)

Saint Denis converted the Gauls to Christianity around the area of Paris, thereby establishing the foundation of what would later become one of the leading centers of the Christian faith in Europe.

Early Life

Saint Denis (deh-nee) was originally named Dionysius. He was a Christian bishop in Italy and a citizen of the Roman Empire. The name “Dionysius” is related to the Greek god Dionysus, known as Bacchus in Roman mythology. The use of such a name among early Christians is an example of how some pagan nomenclature continued in Christian culture and would be passed on in variant forms in many European languages.

Saint Denis lived during the first half of the third century. This period was dominated by increasing instability in the government of the Roman Empire. Emperors of the time had very short reigns. More and more frequently, their reigns ended with their assassinations by military guards who precariously succeeded them. After two centuries of growth, Christianity was an increasingly strong, even aggressive, element within the Empire. Christianity existed throughout the eastern Mediterranean region and in northern Africa, had advanced in Italy, and was entering into the farthest European reaches of the realm.

To the Imperial government, this growth and spread were very dangerous. Christians would not worship the emperor as a god. They were, therefore, contributing to the decline of Roman society and government, which was already enfeebled and threatened. During the third century, in unstable fits and starts, Roman officials became more desperate to stamp out Christianity. Bishops, the leaders of Christian communities, were especially the targets of government persecution.

Such persecution, however, was strengthening Christianity, creating a powerful corps of heroic Christian martyrs and saints. Many popes, who were the bishops of Rome, were martyred. In this atmosphere, Saint Denis and several other bishops set out in the middle of the third century on an evangelizing mission to the Gauls along the northwestern edge of the Empire.

Life’s Work

In Gaul, the name “Dionysius” was transformed into “Denis.” (The name was also rendered as “Denys,” “Dennis,” and “Dionis.”) In addition, Saint Denis was later sometimes referred to as “Dionysius of Paris.” Along with several colleagues, he evangelized in and around the Roman outpost of Lutetia, which later became Paris. The city was then a village on an island (today the Île de la Cité, the center of Paris) in the Seine River. The area was inhabited by members of the Parisii tribe. With its bridges connecting to the mainland, Lutetia was convenient as a location from which Roman troops and traders could move on their way up and down Gaul, and it could be defended from barbarian invaders. To Christians, it was a strategic frontier point.

Lutetia was located in Middle Gaul, one of the three provinces of Gaul that Julius Caesar conquered and described. The outpost was administered from the Roman capital of the province, the city of Lugdunum (later Lyons). The first Christians are thought to have appeared in the province in the latter half of the second century.

When Saint Denis and his colleagues arrived in Lutetia, they were under direct Roman scrutiny. They engaged in missionary activities, attempting to increase the Christian population. Saint Denis was a successful preacher and leader of the Christian community, and he engaged in extensive pastoral activities. He was the first bishop of Paris, and he came to be considered the founder of Christianity in France. He not only enlarged the community of lay Christians but also ordained new members of the clergy.

His success attracted Roman retaliation. During the reigns of the emperors Decius (249-251) and Valerian (253-260), renewed and brutal attempts were made to eliminate Christianity throughout the Empire. It was at some time during these reigns that Saint Denis and two of his assistants, the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius, were imprisoned. According to legend, they refused, in spite of torture, to deny their Christianity and were beheaded on October 9 at Martyrs’ Hill, which is today the Montmartre district of Paris. In the third century, Montmartre was a separate district just north of Lutetia.

The bodies of the three martyrs were retrieved by the faithful and buried in a chapel, which became the site of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Denis in Montmartre. The abbey church later became the burial site of the kings of France. As was customary at the time, Christians immediately venerated martyrs as saints. In later history, the Church would initiate a formal bureaucratic process for the canonization of saints. The burial site of Saint Denis became a place of worship and intercession and over the centuries became the center of a powerful cult. The date of the deaths of Saint Denis, Saint Rusticus, and Saint Eleutherius became a feast day of the Church.

While there is no reliable visual evidence of what Saint Denis looked like, he is usually depicted as a bearded man in the vestments of a Catholic bishop. These clothes are sometimes etched with the fleur-de-lis, the stylized lily or iris that is a symbol of France and French royalty. As a beheaded martyr, he is often depicted holding his head, still wearing a mitre, the peaked ritual headpiece of a bishop. He is portrayed in this manner in paintings and stained-glass windows in many French and English churches, including Canterbury Cathedral.

Christian legends sometimes related that beheaded martyrs walked to their grave sites bearing their heads. Imagined scenes of Saint Denis’s martyrdom were portrayed in murals at the English Benedictine Abbey of Wilton. Considerable veneration of Saint Denis occurred in England in the Benedictine monasteries founded there after the French Norman Conquest in the eleventh century. The English name Dennis and its feminine variant, Denise, also became popular.

As French history developed and Paris became the residence of the king and the political and religious center of the country, Saint Denis came to be considered the patron saint of France. He shares this honor with, among others, Saint Joan of Arc and Saint Martin of Tours. Medieval French armies appealed to Saint Denis for support in battle, much as the English did to Saint George. Saint Denis came also to be considered protector of the French crown.

There is sparse factual data about Saint Denis. The most reliable source comes from the sixth century French historian Saint Gregory, who was bishop of Tours, France. Much other inaccurate information about Saint Denis has resulted from the confusion of him with religious figures of other periods having the same name. For example, several centuries after he died, Saint Denis began to be confused with Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, a disciple of Saint Paul in the mid-first century who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (“Areopagite” refers to a small hill near the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, where Saint Paul preached).

Thus confused with Dionysius the Areopagite, Saint Denis was sometimes thought to have been sent to Gaul by Pope Clement I at the end of the first century c.e., near the end of apostolic times. Because Dionysius the Areopagite was considered the first Christian bishop of Athens, Saint Denis is sometimes portrayed, even in France, in the vestments of an Orthodox bishop.

Further confusion about the life of Saint Denis ensued after he was identified as the author of certain writings of Dionysius the Areopagite that appeared in the fifth century. These writings were treatises and letters dealing with mysticism and religion that became widely popular in the medieval period. Long after their appearance, it was proved that they were not actually written by Dionysius the Areopagite. However, their early attribution to Saint Denis greatly contributed to his fame and further enhanced the reputation of the abbey named after him. The actual author came to be identified as “Pseudo-Dionysius.”

In the high Middle Ages, Saint Denis was the subject of several religious plays. In these works, he was always viewed as the combined character of Dionysius the Areopagite and the historical Saint Denis. A striking feature of the plays was the extent to which they focused on the sequence of tortures he endured before his martyrdom. In these plays, he and his companions valiantly resist torment, affirming the strength of their faith. Such a sequence was the standard script for recounting the life and death of martyrs.

Significance

The life of Saint Denis provides a telling example of the difficulties inherent in attempting to understand the lives of even the most significant figures of ancient times. His case illustrates a common problem that complicates efforts to study and write about such individuals: Names often have several variations, and one or more of these can be easily mistaken with those of another person or other persons. Furthermore, certain mistakes sometimes become entrenched because they are advantageous for later individuals and institutions associated with a historical figure. In the case of Saint Denis, his followers benefited from the belief that he was an associate of the Apostles and that he was the author of widely influential religious writings. French kings, especially, benefited from these distinctions of their patron, and they thereby encouraged belief in them. The problem of understanding the life of Saint Denis—and those of so many other saints and heroic figures—is complicated by the need to separate layers of legend or myth from kernels of fact.

Despite the limited facts available about him, and despite the confusion and ambiguity that surround his memory, several things are quite apparent about Saint Denis. He confronted difficult, unknown, and dangerous circumstances, and he was resolute and effective in following his beliefs. Moreover, his life and work had great significance in the advance of Christianity and in the historical development of France and of Europe as a whole.

Bibliography

Brogan, Olden. Roman Gaul. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953. This description of Gaul as a part of the Roman Empire sheds light on the world in which Saint Denis lived and worked. Includes illustrations.

Drinkwater, J. F. The Gallic Empire: Separatism and Continuity in the Northwestern Provinces of the Roman Empire, A.D. 260-274. Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1987. This work focuses on the immediate social, political, and military conditions in which Saint Denis lived. Includes maps. This author has also written Roman Gaul: The Three Provinces, 58 B.C.-A.D. 260. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1983).

Gregory of Tours, Saint. Glory of the Martyrs. Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 1988. Relates stories of saintly miracles in the early Church, especially in France, some of which were associated with Saint Denis.

King, Anthony. Roman Gaul and Germany. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. An examination of the Roman provincial, colonial environment before and after the time of Saint Denis, based on archaeological excavations.

Lacaze, Charlotte. The “Vie de Saint Denis” Manuscript. New York: Garland, 1979. An annotated translation of a manuscript in the French National Library that makes up the most extensive narrative on, and pictorial representation of, Saint Denis and his era. Numerous illustrations.

Van Dam, Raymond. Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Outlines the social and political environment in which Saint Denis operated and functioned. Includes maps and a bibliography.