St. Dionysius of Alexandria

Dionysius came to the Christian faith after a formation in the learning of his time. Butler remembers his reading of St. Paul and his study in the catechetical school at Alexandria. He later directed that school and became bishop of the city.

Persecution interrupted his ministry, but distance did not end his care for the faithful. From retreat and exile he sent priests, letters and directions to those entrusted to him. Butler also recalls his opposition to schism and his insistence that penitent Christians should not be denied reconciliation at the hour of death.

His pastoral work continued amid disease and civil disorder. The account remembers Christians caring for the sick at great cost, alongside Dionysius’s teaching and letters in defence of the faith. In old age, when he could not attend the council against Paul of Samosata, he wrote instead. This bishop of Alexandria is distinct from his contemporary Dionysius of Rome and from Denis of Paris.