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St. Dionysius of Rome

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St. Dionysius of Rome

Pope, Confessor

Dionysius of Rome served as pope after the persecution that killed Sixtus II. Butler remembers his defence of the faith and aid sent to ransom captives in Cappadocia.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Charitable work remembered: Aid for captives from Caesarea in Cappadocia
Butler records the letter of comfort and money sent to ransom people carried into captivity.

Butler sourceAlban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 26, “St Dionysius, Pope, Confessor,” p. 403.

Butler’s Lives of the Saints (1846)Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 26, “St Dionysius, Pope, Confessor,” p. 403.

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 26, “St Dionysius, Pope, Confessor,” p. 403.

Dionysius was a priest of the Roman Church before becoming pope after Sixtus II. Butler places his election after the vacancy prolonged by persecution and remembers the learning praised by his namesake, Dionysius of Alexandria.

His charity reached churches far from Rome. When captives were carried away from Caesarea in Cappadocia, he sent a letter of comfort and money for their ransom. Butler recalls St. Basil’s praise of that care for distant Christians.

He also defended the Church’s faith against teachings that obscured the divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost. Later fathers drew upon his writings. This December 26 remembrance concerns Dionysius of Rome, distinct from the bishop of Alexandria and from Denis of Paris.

Historical note

An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 source. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.

This is the pope Dionysius of Rome. The ministries of Dionysius of Alexandria and Denis of Paris are not combined with his; an exact death year is not asserted here.

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