DIONYSIUS BAR ṢALĪBĪ. - Syriac Monophysite writer, d. 2 November 1171. Ordained deacon at Melitene in 1154, he was made bishop of Mar'ash and later of Mabbug; then in 1166 he became metropolitan of Amida. There he died and was buried in the church of the Virgin which he had restored. D. is one of the most prolific Syriac writers and of the most varied learning. Many of his works have perished, while others lie hidden in the archives.
As an exegete, D. wrote many commentaries on the Bible. There still remain unpublished fragments of writings on the Old Testament, in which, besides the literal sense, the "pragmatic" and the "pneumatic" senses are set forth. The commentary on the Gospels was published and translated into Latin by Sedlacek-Chabot in the Corpus Scriptorum Christ. Orientalium, Script. Syri, 2nd series, XCVIII-XCIX, Paris 1906-33. Other commentaries on the Apocalypse, the Acts and the Letters of the Apostles were edited by the same Sedlacek (op. cit., CI, Rome 1910). Of the commentaries on patristic writings we possess those on Evagrius (edition of ch. 2 of the introduction and of the exposition of the first sentence, in the Catalogue of the Syriac manuscripts of Berlin, published by E. Sachau, Berlin 1899, p. 605 ff.), while others on the Cappadocians, on Pseudo-Dionysius and on Severus of Antioch have been lost. Apparently nothing has survived but a few traces of the theological writings and especially of his Book of Theology. A better fate has befallen his polemical works against the Muslims (edition of book 3, by A. Mingana, Manchester 1925), against the Jews (ed. J. de Zwana, Dion. B. S. treatise against the Jews, Leiden 1906), against the Nestorians (account by F. Nau in the Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 14 [1909], pp. 298-320), against the "Chalcedonians" (ed. A. Mingana, in the Woodbrock Studies, I, Cambridge 1927), against the Armenians (ed. A. Mingana, ibid., IV, ibid. 1931) and against the idolaters.
Furthermore, a treatise on the eucharistic liturgy has been preserved for us (ed. H. Labourt, in the Corpus Script. Christ. Or., Script. Syri, 2nd series, XCIII, Paris 1903) and others on the consecration of Chrism and on the ritual of ordination, still unpublished. D. also compiled an anthology of liturgical melodies, composed a compendium of lives of saints and another of apostolic canons, put together 31 penitential canons, prepared other similar collections and composed a ritual of confession which has been preserved for us (ed. J. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis, II, Rome 1721, pp. 172-74).
BIBL. A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, Bonn 1922, pp. 295-97; W. de Vries, Sahramenteheologie bei den syrischen Monophysiten, Rome 1940, passim.
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina