DIONYSIUS of Alexandria, St. — Church Father, born at the end of the 2nd century, died in 264 AD. The son of pagans, he came to faith through reading and meditation. He was a disciple of ORIGEN, to whom he remained devoted. In 231–32 he succeeded HERACLAS as head of the Didascalium and was made bishop of Alexandria; in 247–48 he succeeded him in the episcopate. He suffered greatly under Philip the Arab (248–49) due to popular tumults against Christians, and during the persecution of Decius, from which he deemed it prudent to flee. Returning in November 251, he combated heretical and schismatic movements. In 257–58, under Valerian, after a glorious confession he was exiled to Kolluthion in the Mareotis, where he likely remained until March 262. His final years were troubled by war, famine, and plague that afflicted his city. Feast: November 17.
None of D.’s works survive with independent tradition; notices and fragments are found in Eusebius, Athanasius, Basil, and others. In the books On Nature, of which substantial fragments remain (Eusebius, Praep. ev., XIV, 23–27), he opposes the atomism of Democritus and Epicurus with the Christian doctrine of creation and providence. Of a book On Temptations, addressed to Euphranor, only the title survives. Some fragments remain of a Commentary on the beginning of Ecclesiastes. Significant fragments survive (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, 24–25) from two books On Promises, against the chiliast Nepos, bishop of Arsinoë in Egypt. A Refutation and Apology in four books he sent to Pope Dionysius to defend himself against charges of subordination and tritheism; notices and fragments are especially in Athanasius (De sententia Dionysii ep. AL). Two letters survive intact: one (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., IV, 45) to Novatian, inviting submission to Pope Cornelius; the other, in collections of canonical epistles, to Bishop Basilides, on various disciplinary points. Of others—concerning the Novatian schism, the controversy over baptism of heretics, and the Trinitarian question—only notices and fragments remain. Particularly important are the “festal” letters, by which he announced the date of Easter to bishops and communities of the province and offered timely admonitions.
D. was above all a pastor and man of action, zealous for the good of his flock and of the whole Church, undaunted by danger, skilled and prudent in governance, more concerned to safeguard orthodoxy than to delve speculatively into dogma. He upheld the canonicity of the Apocalypse and the need to interpret it allegorically, though he attributed it to a John other than the Apostle. In combating Sabellianism he initially adopted subordinationist positions, which led Arians to regard him as their forerunner; but after remonstrances from Pope Dionysius he took the opposite stance. In the Novatian controversy he sided with the legitimate pope, Cornelius; regarding the lapsed, he recommended clemency. In the baptismal controversy he appeared hesitant, treating it more as a disciplinary matter than a dogmatic question.