DIONYSIUS BAR SALIBI. - Syriac Monophysite writer, d. 2 Nov. 1171. Ordained deacon at Melitene in 1154, he was later made bishop of Mar'as and subsequently of Mabbog; in 1166 he became metropolitan of Amida, where he died and was buried in the church of the Virgin which he had restored. D. is one of the most prolific and versatile Syriac writers. Many of his works have been lost, while others remain hidden in archives.
As an exegete, D. wrote many commentaries on the Bible. There are still unpublished fragments of writings on the Old Testament, in which, besides the literal sense, the “pragmatic” and “pneumatic” senses are expounded. The commentary on the Gospels has been published and translated into Latin by Sedlacek-Chabot in the *Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium*, *Scriptores 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, those on Evagrius survive (edition of ch. 2 of the introduction and the declaration of the first sentence in the *Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in Berlin*, published by E. Sachau, Berlin 1899, pp. 605 ff.), while others on the Cappadocians, Pseudo-Dionysius and Severus of Antioch have been lost. It seems that only traces remain of his theological writings, and in particular of his *Book of Theology*. Better fortune attended his polemical works against the Muslims (edition of the 3rd book by A. Mingana, Manchester 1925), against the Jews (ed. J. de Zwaan, *Dion. B. S. treatise against the Jews*, Leiden 1906), against the Nestorians (account by F. Nau in *Revue de l'Orient chrétien*, 14 [1909], pp. 298-320), against the “Chalcedonians” (ed. A. Mingana in *Woodbrooke Studies*, I, Cambridge 1927), against the Armenians (ed. A. Mingana, ibid., IV, 1931) and against the idolaters.
Moreover, a treatise on the Eucharistic liturgy survives (ed. H. Labourt in *Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium*, *Scriptores Syri*, 2nd series, XCIII, Paris 1903), as well as others on the consecration of the Chrism and on the ritual of ordination, still unpublished. D. also compiled an anthology of liturgical melodies, including a compendium of lives of saints and another of apostolic canons; he assembled 31 penitential canons, prepared three similar collections and composed a ritual of confession which has been preserved (ed. J. S. Assemani, *Bibliotheca Orientalis*, II, Rome 1721, pp. 172-74).
