DIONYSIUS THE An'EoVAGITF.. A memher of the Court of Areopagus (q.v.). at Athens. converted to Christianity through the preaching of Paul (Acts xvii. 34). Nothing more is known about hint. Eusehius, on the authority of Dimly cults. Bishop of Corinth, about A.n. 175. records that he was the first Bishop of the Church of Athens, and a 11111(.11 later historian says he was martyred there in the reign of Domitian. Ac cording to still another tradition, he was sent by Clennnt of Rome into Gaul (Paris), where lie died a martt r en AtolitIllartre. There is et I dont confusion between the real Diont sins noel Saint Donis q.v, I. patron saint of "France. necortlin.:" to of founded the t Much in Paris in the third century. For this confusion the abbot llibluin is largely responsible.
In the sixth century we nice( With a body of a riling: which bear the name of Dionysius .1r eopagita. Ecclesiastical tradition ascribed them to Paul's Athenian eumvert, but it is certain that Ul•y are the stork of a Christian Neo-Piatonist of the sixth century. The first of these works, entitled no II reit deal- with the nine order- of angelic beings: the second, Po f,;( chsotstiral If ecru rch y. with their nine earthly counterparts. Ili'aven and earth are thus woven together into one grand structure of corresmonhm cies, suggesting the later system worked out by Swedenborg 1 q.v. ) . Through these graded hierarchies God communicates Himself to man. The treatise on Divine A antes inquires What the names which have been given to the Doily call teach us respecting Ilk nature and attributes. In the Mystic Thco/oyy the author transeends the system of symbols which he has hitherto em ployed. and sets forth an intuitive mysticism. the sours rapture to the divine. it is here especially that. through the psertdo•Dionysius. Neo-Platonic and Christian mystic's are brought into one line of historical development, for it can he shown that our author drew largely from Plotinus and Proclus.
The pseudo-Dionysiae writings were probably produced in the East. Syria and Egypt have bran conjeetnred to have been their Their influence appears in the system of the great doc tor of the Eastern Chureh, John of Damascus. In the NVest they are not found prior to Gregory the Great (sixth century), but throughout the Alid die Ages they a vast influence upon the thought of Christian Enrope. in the ninth cen tury 11114111in, abbot of Saint-Denis. wrote a life of Dionysius which gained wide currency, and not long afterwards. in the reign '4 Charles the Dahl, the learned dohs Soot us Erigena translated his supposed works into Latin. In this more acces sible form they furnished a prohibit. source of inspiration to the scholastic theologians. espe cially Iluglies de Saint-Vidlor and Thomas Aqui nas. The Florentine Platonists of the fifteenth century studied thorn With ardor, as did the Eng lish thiniatil-t, Colet and Groeyn. in1111 ( nee is p•inly traceable in Dante's Dirine Com ed if. Valla and east doubt upon the prevabmt belief that these writings were from the pen of the .\ thenian Dialysing, hut their ant he ieite Wag stoutly defended by ninny writ. r-. and is still maintained here and there, in of the overwIndining evidence to the emit ra ry.
Th., of pseudo-1)ionysius were edited liv ('ord‘ rills, an I reprinted in Aligne„ !Nitro). (trite., iii. and iv. I Paris, 1N57 I edition of the Coq. sir sc u .1 nut lira 1111 rarrhia :Appeared at Freiburg. 191r2.. For an English translation, sult •1. Parker. Tly Pio,' yRilis I hr .1 re. ora rti tr ( London. 1S97) : also. in general, the article "Dionysius." in Smith and nie lionory of Christ Ian Biogra ph y (Lyndon, 1S77 S71 : and Hugo K111./1, PS1 1/1/11-1)/(11/ Itti hi.% mora gut a in A. 'turn It, noq,n zrtill tend Olainz, 1p(10).