DIONYSIUS, bishop of CORINTH, saint. — Contemporary of Pope Soter (before 175). Author of seven “Catholic Epistles” (encyclicals) addressed to the faithful in Lacedaemon, Athens, Nicomedia, Gortyna (Crete), Amasia (Pontus), Cnossus (Crete), and Rome. Eusebius knew a collection of the Epistles of D., in which was also included the reply letter of Bishop Pinytus of Cnossus (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., IV, 3). Outside this collection there still existed a letter to a certain Chrysophora. The collection of the Epistles of D. was already compiled during the lifetime of the bishop, because in a passage cited by Eusebius, D. complains of the falsification of his letters by heretics. They were probably Marcionites (ibid., IV, 23, 12).
Besides the Marcionites, D. also combated the Montanists. The question of Christian asceticism interested him; but whereas Pinytus was more rigorist, D. advised caution and not to demand too much from the faithful regarding evangelical counsels. In the letter to Soter of Rome, D. offers a splendid praise of the charitable activity of the Christians in Rome and recalls that the epistle of Clement to the Corinthians was still publicly read during his time in the religious service of the church of Corinth. Feast on April 8.