DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE, con verted to Christianity by Saint Paul (Acts xvii, 34), during the apostle's visit to Athens. Diony sius is called the Areopagite because he was. a member of the high court of Athens, the pages, which held its' sessions cm Mars Hill. was generally believed by the ,early historians that this Dionysius was ordained a priest, was made bishop of Athens and ended his life martyrdom. Another tradition had it that was sent into Gaul by Clement of Rome, and, died a martyr on Montmartre. This opinion arose from confusion between Denis the Areo pagite and Denis, the patron of France, who, founded the church in Paris in the 3d century., The New Testament tells us only that he °did believe° and adhered to Saint Paul. He has been wrongfully credited with being the author of certain ancient writings on subjects chiefly mystical which, though attributed to that member of the court of Areopagus who was con verted to Christianity by the preaching of the Apostle Paul, Acts xvii, 34, must be referred to some unknown writer of the 4th or the 5th century: hence the author is now usually styled Pseudo-Dionysius, or Dionysius Pseudo-Areo pagite. The titles of the works attributed to the Areopagite are 'The Heavenly 'The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy' ; 'Divine Names' • 'Mystical Divinity.' Ten letters are attributed to him, purporting to be addressed to Saint John the Evangelist, Titus, Polycarp and others, their contemporaries. These writings
came first into notice in 533 at Constantinople when certain Monophysite heretics presented them in confirmation of their doctrines; but they were repudiated by the orthodox as mani festly spurious. Nevertheless before long they came into high favor both in the East and the West and throughout the Middle Ages were re ceived by the most eminent schoolmen as indis pensable monuments of the teaching and belief of the early Church. Mgr. Darboy says: °There is scarcely a passage in the wntings of . Pseudo-Dionysius that has not bees; quoted by? Thomas Aquinas, These writings were r studied by the Platonists and 'others 'and erted a tremendous influence on the Humanists. Dante and Milton were familiar with them as were others of lesser note. Erasmus and Valla appear to have been the first to regard them as falsely attributed to this Dionysius and later authorities agree in their opinion that the works were written near the end of the 5th century. Consult article "Dionysius" in Smith and Wace, 'Dictionary of Christian Biog raphy) (London 1877-87) ; • Koch, Hugo, (Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita in seinen Bezie hungen sum Neuplatonismus and Mysterien wesen (Mainz 1900) ; Parker, J., 'The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite' (London 1887) ; Vaughan, 'Hours with the Mystics) (ib. 1860).