DIONIGI, bishop of CORINTO, saint. — Contemporary of Pope Sotero (before 175). Author of seven “Catholic Epistles” (encyclicals) addressed to the faithful in Lacedemonia, Athens, Nicomedia, Gortyna (Crete), Amasis (Pontus), Cnosso (Crete), and Rome. Eusebius knew a collection of Epistles by D., which also contained the letter of reply from Pinto, bishop of Cnosso (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., IV, 3). Outside the collection, there was also a letter to a certain Crisofora. The collection of D.’s epistles had already been compiled during the bishop’s lifetime, because in a passage cited by Eusebius, D. complains that heretics were falsifying his letters. These were probably Marcionites (ibid., IV, 23, 12).
In addition to the Marcionites, D. also combated the Montanists. He was interested in the question of Christian asceticism; but whereas Pinite was more rigorist, D. advised caution and counseled not to demand too much of the faithful with regard to the consilia evangelica. In the letter to Sotero of Rome, D. gives a splendid eulogy of the charitable activity of Christians in Rome and recalls that Clement’s epistle to the Corinthians was still publicly read in the religious service of the church of Corinto in his time. Feast day: 8 April.