Διονύσιος ὁ Ἀρεωπαγίτης

Bishop of Athens↗, a most illustrious man, who reached the highest level in Greek culture. A disciple of Paul, who introduced him to the Christian faith,¹ Dionysius was enthroned by him as the bishop of Athens↗ itself.² As for the skills in the Greek disciplines, his inherited culture,³ he was judged the most eminent of all [his equals], for generally speaking he had gained great experience in each study field they [sc. the pagan Greeks] cultivated. This man was an auditor of Paul, when the latter was teaching at Athens↗ and openly proclaiming among the Greeks the good news of the Christ and His resurrection. After he put faith in Paul's preaching Dionysius was appointed by him as the bishop of the city. So during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when he also was in the prime of his manhood, he left for Egypt, because he longed to meet with the learned men of that country. Along with him also came the well-known Apollophanes the Sophist,⁴ whose disciple at Smyrna↗ was Polemon of Laodicea,⁵ the master of Aristides.⁶ At the time of the saving passion of Christ the Lord, the two of them were staying at Helioupolis, the city of Egypt.⁷ Now, since the solar eclipse took place in an unnatural way⁸ -– it was not the appointed time for conjunction -– it is said that Apollophanes the Sophist addressed the blessed Dionysius with these words: "my good Dionysius, [these are] the requitals for divine things!". It is Dionysius himself that mentions all of these events in the letter he wrote to Polycarp the Great, bishop of Smyrna↗,⁹ as Apollophanes was attacking Dionysius because of his adherence to the Christian religion. And [Dionysius] said: "but you say that Apollophanes the Sophist is railing at me, and calls me parricide on the grounds that I impiously use the [thought] of the Greeks against the Greeks.¹⁰ However, it would be more true for us to reply to him that the Greeks impiously use divine things against [other] divine things, because they attempt to overthrow the respect due to God through the wisdom which comes from God".¹¹ A little later, [he said]: "but even Apollophanes himself is impiously using divine things against [other] divine things. The true philosophers ought indeed to be led by the knowledge of reality, which he does well to call 'philosophy' and the divine Paul has called 'wisdom of God',¹² toward the Cause of the reality itself and the knowledge of that [reality]". And again a little later: "since Apollophanes is a wise man, he should be aware that of the order and the movements of Heaven, nothing could otherwise be altered, [than] if it were moved to that point by the one who holds it together and causes its existence, [the one] who creates and transforms everything, according to the Scriptures."¹³ And after a while again, "tell then¹⁴ to him: what do you say about the solar eclipse that took place at the time of the saving Cross? Then indeed, when both of us were present at Helioupolis and were together, we saw the Moon falling upon the Sun, contrary to any expectation, for it was not the appointed time for conjunction. And again the Moon from the ninth hour up to the evening was set up against the solar disk in an unnatural way. And let him remember some further detail: he [sc. Apollophanes] knows that we saw the contact itself starting from east and moving up to the edge of the Sun, then stepping back with a retrograde motion; and again the contact and the end of the eclipse did not take place from the same direction, but from diametrically opposite points. So great were the prodigies of that time, possible only for Christ, the cause of all, the One who makes great and extraordinary things, so numerous that it is impossible to count them.[14a] "If you think you can do it righteously and are able to, Apollophanes" [said Dionysius], "try to deny it in front of me, who was with you on that occasion, and who has seen, examined and wondered with you at these events. Actually, I don’t know whence, Apollophanes at that time started prophesying, and said to me as if he was interpreting the things which happened: ‘My good Dionysius, [these are] the requitals of divine things’".¹⁵ Such marvelous events the great Dionysius narrated in his letter to the inspired Polycarp. A demonstration giving a precise idea of his wisdom and his eloquence is the style of the books he wrote, that could never be surpassed: his knowledge was great in both kinds of culture, the one so-called by the pagans, and ours, the divine one. Indeed, if one looks at the beauty of his words and the depth of his thoughts, one would think that they are the offspring not of a human nature, but of an incorruptible, divine power.
Now, the following are the books he wrote:
to Timothy, bishop of Ephesus↗, who was himself a disciple of Paul, 12 books On Divine Names;¹⁶ [these include:] On Unity and Distinction of Divine Word;¹⁷ On the question "What is the might of prayer?" and On the blessed Hierotheus, On Piety, Theological summary;¹⁸ On the Good; On Light; On Beauty; On Love; On Ecstasy; On Zeal; Evil is not a being, nor derives from existing things, nor is inside existing things¹⁹; On Being, therein Examples;²⁰ On Life ²¹; On Wisdom; On Mind; On Reason; On Truth; On Belief;²² On Power; On Justice; On Salvation; On Purification;²³ On the great and the small; On Identity; On Alterity; On Similarity; On Difference; On Rest; On Movement; On equality;²⁴ On the Sovereign of All, the Ancient of days, therein On Eternity and Time; On Peace;²⁵ What is meant by "being itself"; On the Holy of Holies, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, God of Gods.²⁶ Another book, dedicated to the same Timothy, [is] On Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,²⁷ including 15 chapters; another book, to the same Timothy, On Celestial Hierarchy,²⁸ also in 15 chapters, another book to the same Timothy On Mystical Theology,²⁹ including 5 chapters, On the heavenly orders and what their number is.
Letters³⁰ of Dionysius are transmitted to the monk Gaius in number of four; one to the deacon Dorotheus; one to the priest Sopatros; one to Polycarp, hierarch of Smyrna↗; one to the monk Demophilos; one to John the Theologian, the apostle and evangelist. We should know that some of the pagan philosophers, and especially Proclus, often have used the theories of the blessed Dionysius, and they did it also with his bare words. One might suppose from that, that the earlier Athenian philosophers, after having usurped his works -– as Dionysius himself mentions, writing to Timotheus -– hid it, in order to be seen as the authors of his divine books.
Thus, Dionysius, the revealer of God, already aged and old, died as a martyr for Christ under the reign of Traian Caesar, when also the inspired Ignatius at Rome entered the combat for immortality.
An Encomium on the Great Dionysius has been written by Michael Syncellus of Jerusalem↗, in which he says:³¹ "what we have received through his written or unwritten teaching, we come to explain it to you all, who are willing to listen. A narration has come down to us, transmitted from father to son, that the above mentioned great Dionysius, at the time of the saving Passion, when at noon the Sun was obscured, astonished at the extraordinary phenomenon and going beyond the [limits of] human understanding, said 'An unknown God is suffering, for the sake of whom all things are being darkened and shaken'.³² And immediately, right at the moment this universal miracle was produced, he had conjectured [the reasons] and was observing by himself, waiting for the meaning that would be announced by that. He himself mentions that most frightening solar eclipse in the letter to the bishop Polycarp. For Apollophanes, a philosopher, follower of the Greek religion, was railing and attacking this thrice-fortunate man, as, albeit he was his beloved companion, of his same origin, he felt disgusted for the religion of his country and chose the one of the Christians, embraced a faith and fought for it most bravely, and used Greek writings against the Greeks. In the attempt to refute that attack and anger, or rather to give it as a suggestion to Polycarp, since the mockery was also directed against him by the fellow, Dionysius says the following words: "but you say that Apollophanes the Sophist is railing at me, and calls me parricide" etc.