October III

St. Dionysius the Areopagite, Bishop of Athens, M.

See Acts 16; Tillemont, t. 2; Cave, p. 66

The great apostle of the Gentiles, esteeming himself equally a debtor to the learned and to the unlearned, arrived at Athens about the year 51, seven teen years after our Lord’s crucifixion, and boldly preached the faith in that city, which had been for many ages the chief seat of the muses, where the chief studies of philosophy, oratory, and polite literature flourished. All matters belonging to religion were, by an ancient law of that state, to be determined by the great council of the Areopagites, which was still observed; for, though the Athenians were fallen under the Roman yoke, yet, out of regard to their learning, and to the ancient dignity of their republic, the Romans restored to them many of their ancient privileges, with the name and title at least of their liberty. St. Paul therefore was summoned to give an account of his doctrine in the Areopagus.† The apostle appeared undaunted in that august and severe assembly of proud sages, though Plato so much dreaded a like examination at this tribunal, that he on no other account dissembled his sentiments of the unity of God, and other like truths, of which he was himself perfectly satisfied, especially after his travels into Egypt, as St. Justin Martyr testifies.¹ St. Paul explained before these learned senators the Christian maxims of repentance, purity of manners, the unity and omnipresence of God, his judgments, and the resurrection of the dead. The divine unction with which he delivered these great truths was an eloquence with which these masters of philosophy and oratory were unacquainted. The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead shocked many, and was a great stumbling-block, though Plato and other eminent philosophers among them had established many sublime sentiments with regard to the immortality of the soul, and the rewards and punishments of a life to come; but that our flesh, which putrefies in the earth, and perishes to all our senses, shall, by the power of God, be raised again the same that dies, was what many of these wise men of the world looked upon as a dream, rather than a certain truth. Many, however, among them were exceedingly moved with the sanctity and sublimity of this new doctrine, and with the marks of a divine mission with which the preacher delivered himself; and they said to him they would hear him again upon that subject on some other day. Some whose hearts were touched by a powerful grace, and who with simplicity sought after the truth, not the idle gratification of curiosity, pride, or vanity, without delay addressed themselves to the apostle, and received from him full satisfaction of the evidence of the divine revelation which he preached to them. Among these there was a woman named Damaris; but the most remarkable among these converts was Dionysius, one of the honorable members or judges of this most venerable and illustrious senate.* We are assured by the testimony of St. Dionysius of Corinth,² that St. Dionysius the Areopagite was afterwards constituted bishop of Athens; and that this was done by St. Paul himself we are informed by the Apostolical Constitutions, by Aristides cited by Usuard, and by several ancient martyrologists. Aristides quoted by Usuard, and St. Sophronius of Jerusalem, styled him a martyr. The Greeks, in their menologies, tells us that he was burnt alive for the faith as Athens.† His name occurs in ancient calendars on the 3d of October. The cathedral of Soissons is in possession of his head, which was brought thither from Constantinople, in 1205. Pope Innocent III. sent to the abbey of St. Denis, near Paris, the body of this saint, which had been translated from Greece to Rome.

We admire in this glorious saint, and other illustrious primitive converts, the wonderful change which faith produced in their souls. It not only enlightened their understandings, discovering to them new fields of the most sublime and important knowledge, and opening to their meditation the boundless range of eternity, and of the infinite riches of the divine goodness justice, and mercy; but it also exerted the most powerful influence upon their wills. A spirit of the most sincere and profound compunction and humility was created in them, with a perfect contempt of the world, and all earthly things, and an entire disengagement of their hearts from all inordinate attachment to creatures. The fire of pure and ardent charity was also kindled in their hearts, which consumed all the rust of their passions, and purged their affections. From these virtues of humility and charity, which Christ declares to be the foundation of his spirit in a soul, arose an unalterable meekness, peace, fortitude, and constancy, with the whole train of virtues. Thus, by their conversion to the faith, they were interiorly changed, and became quite new men, endued with a temper truly heavenly, and animated with the spirit of Christ. The light of faith spreads its beams upon our souls. Why hen has it not produced the same reformation and change in our wills and affections? This it cannot do while we refuse to open our hearts to this grace, and earnestly set ourselves to remove all obstacles of self-love and the passions. Yet, till this change be wrought in our affections, we are earthly, strangers to the spirit of Christ, and want the mark, of meekness and charity, by which those are to be known that belong to him. A Christian is not a mere name, or empty profession; it is a great and noble work; a work of difficulty which requires assiduous application, and continual pains; and in which the greater our endeavors and advances have been, with the greater ardor do we continually strive to advance higher towards perfection, saying with St. Paul, Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect; but I follow after. I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.³

St. Gerard, Abbot

The county of Namur gave birth to this saint, who, being nearly related to Haganon, duke of Lower Austrasia, and educated in the military service, was preferred young to one of the most honorable posts in the household or palace of Berenger, the sovereign count of Namur, whose court was one of the most splendid in Christendom. An engaging sweetness of temper, and a strong inclination to piety and devotion, gained him from the cradle the esteem and affection of every one, and his courtesy and universal beneficence gave the greatest charms to virtue, and made it shine forth by his whole conduct in the most amiable light. He proportioned his profuse alms to the utmost extent of his large revenues and estates, and knew no imaginary necessities which serve so often for pretences to withhold charities, being sensible that a man gains nothing by putting a cheat upon his own soul; for it is the truth that will judge us, which can neither be altered nor weakened by the illusions of the passions, or by the false prejudices of men. God blessed his fidelity by pouring forth abundantly his choicest graces upon him. Gerard was enriched by him with an extraordinary gift of prayer, and by this he obtained all other graces. Such was his ardor and affection for this heavenly exercise, that he seemed to pray everywhere, and at all times. One day, as he returned from hunting, in which diversion he had accompanied his sovereign, while the rest went to take some refreshment, he privately stole into a retired chapel at Brogne, which was part of his own estate, and remained there a long time in devout prayer. He found so much interior sweetness in that heavenly exercise, that he rose from it with extreme, regret, and said to himself, “How happy are they who have no other employment but to praise the Lord night and day, to live always in his sweet presence, and to consecrate their hearts to him without interruption.” To procure this happiness for others, and this incessant tribute and honor to the supreme majesty of God, he founded in that place several canonries and prebends, and built there a fair church in 918. The earl, his sovereign, who, from the experience which he had of his prudence and virtue, placed in him an entire confidence, sent him to the court of France open an important commission. At Paris, leaving his attendants in the city be retired to the abbey of St. Denis, where he was exceedingly edified with the fervor and solitude of the holy monks, and earnestly desired to dedicate himself to God in that place. For the execution of this design the consent of his sovereign was necessary; which, upon his return to Namur, he extorted from him, though with great difficulty. His uncle Stephen being bishop of Tongres, he went thither to receive his blessing and advice, and having settled his temporal affairs, went back with great joy to St. Denis’s, of make the sacrifice of himself at the foot of God’s altar. During his novitiate he spared no mortification and self-denials, that he might begin more perfectly to die to himself: without which condition our virtues themselves are often false or imperfect, being tainted with self-love. For, in the most holy functions, men often seek to please themselves rather than God, and gratify some subtle inordinate passion. When we seem to propose no other aim but God’s glory, the deceitfulness of self-love is even more dangerous, because less capable of discovery. So long as this principle of self-love resides and is cherished in the heart, it prompts us to conceive a secret opinion of our labors, and to seek an unwarranted delight in our endeavors. This shows itself by our want of perfect humility and meekness, both towards others, and towards ourselves; by a secret fretfulness, sourness, or discouragements into which we sometimes fall. This source must be cut off, otherwise it will easily creep into and debase the purity of our affections, and intention in our religious exercises themselves, and will be an insuperable bar to our progress in divine love, and in the perfect union of our affections to God in holy prayer.

Gerard, after his religious profession, labored every day with greater fervor to carry on all Christian virtues to their noblest heights, and especially those of humility, meekness, penance, obedience, and devout prayer, the main helps by which divine charity is to be made daily more pure and perfect in a soul. Gerard began his studies from the first elements, and went through them with incredible patience and assiduity. Five years after his profession he received priestly orders, though his humility was not to be overcome in this promotion without great difficulty. When he had lived ten years with great fervor in this monastery, in 931 he was sent by his abbot to found an abbey upon his estate at Brogne, three leagues from Namur. He had no sooner settled this new abbey, but finding the dissipation of receiving visitants, and of the charge of a numerous community, to break in too much upon his retirement, and to interrupt his prayer, he built himself a little cell near the church, and lived in it a recluse. God, some time after, called him again to the active life for the greater advancement of his glory, and Gerard was obliged to take upon him the reformation of the regular canons at St. Guilhain, six miles from Mons, in which house he established the holy order of St. Bennet, of which he became one of the greatest ornaments and propagators. At the request of earl Arnold I., surnamed the Great, whom the saint had miraculously cured of the stone, and whom he had engaged to take up a penitential course of life, which he held to his death, the general inspection and reformation of all the abbeys in Flanders was committed to him; and he introduced a new and most exact discipline in eighteen monasteries, namely, St. Peter’s at Ghent, St. Bavo’s, St. Martin’s at Tournay, Marciennes, Hanon, Rhonay, St. Vaast’s at Arras, Turhoult, Wormhoult at Berg, St. Riquier’s, St. Bertin’s, St. Silvin’s, St. Samer’s, St. Amand’s, St. Ame’s, and St. Berta’s; all which houses honor him as their abbot and second patriarch. The monasteries of Champagne, Lorraine, and Picardy, also chose him for their general master and reformer; those especially of St. Remigius of Rheims, of Mouson, and of Thin le Moutier, call him to this day the restorer of their discipline, and of the order of St. Bennet. No fatigues made the saint abate any thing of his ordinary austerities, nor did his employs seem to interrupt the continual sweet communication of his soul with God. When he had spent almost twenty years in these zealous labors, and was broken with old age, he travelled to Rome, and obtained of the pope the confirmation of all the reforms which he had made.* After his return he made a general visitation of all the monasteries that were under his direction; which when he had finished, he shut himself up in his cell, to prepare his soul, by the most fervent exercises of the pure love of God, to go to receive the recompense of his labors, to which he was called on the 3d of October, in 959. The abbey of Brogue is now united to the bishopric of Namur, erected by Paul IV., but the church of Brogne still possesses the treasure of his relics, and retains his name, which is mentioned on this day in the Roman Martyrology, and others. See his exact life in Mabillon, Act. Bened. t. 7. Also Gramaye in Historia et Antiquitatibus comitatus Namurcensis, p. 72; Bie the Bollandist, t. 2, Oct. pp. 220, 320.

The Two Ewalds, MM.

Soon after St. Willibrord with eleven companions, in 690, had opened the spiritual harvest in Friesland, two brothers, both priests, of the English nation, followed their example, and went over into the country of the ancient Saxons, in Westphalia in Germany, to preach the gospel to blind idolaters.† They had travelled into Ireland to improve themselves in virtue and sacred learning. Both were called by the same name, Ewald or Hewald; but, for distinction’s sake, from the color of their hair, the one was called the Black, the other the White Ewald. The first was esteemed more learned in the holy scriptures, but both seemed equally to excel in the fervor of devotion and holy zeal. The old Saxons in Germany were at that time governed by several petty princes, who in time of war joined their forces, and cast lots who should command the army in chief, and him the rest were bound to obey; and, as soon as the war was over, they were all reduced to their former condition. The two brothers arriving in this country about the year 694, met with a certain steward, whom they desired to conduct them to his lord. All the way they were constantly employed in prayer and in singing psalms and sacred hymns, and every day offered the sacrifice of the holy oblation, for which purpose they carried with them sacred vessels, and a consecrated table for an altar. The barbarians observing this, and fearing lest the preachers might prevail upon their lord to forsake his idols, resolved to murder them both. The White Ewald they killed by the sword upon the spot; but they inflicted on the other brother most cruel torments, and at length tore him limb from limb. The lord of the territory being informed of this inhuman action, was highly incensed, put the authors of it to the sword, and burned their village. The bodies of the martyrs, which had been thrown by the murderers into the Rhine, were discovered by a heavenly light which shone over them, and by other miracles, to their companions, who were forty miles distant from the place where they were martyred; and one of them, whose name was Tilmon, or as it is more correctly written in king Alfred’s paraphrase of Bede, Tilman, was admonished in a vision to take them up. This Tilman being a person of high birth, had formerly been an officer in the English army, but was then a monk, and one of the missionaries in Germany. These relics were first taken up and interred by their fellow missionaries, Tilman and his companions, forty miles from the place of their martyrdom; but, immediately after, by an order of Pepin, duke of the French, were honorably conveyed to Cologne, where they are kept at this day in a gilt shrine in the church of St. Cunibert. Their martyrdom happened between the years 690 and 700, most probably in 695. They were honored among the saints immediately after their death, as appears from Ven. Bede’s prose Martyrology, which seems to have been written a year after their death. St. Anno, archbishop of Cologne, in 1074, translated their relics in this church. He bestowed their heads on Frederick bishop of Munster, where they seem to have been destroyed by the Anabaptists in 1534. They are honored through all Westphalia as tutelar saints of the country, and are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on the 3d of October, which was probably either the day of their death or of some translation. See Bede, Hist. l. 5, c. 11, and in his prose Martyrology; Alcuin’s poem on the saints of the diocese of York, published by Gale, v. 1045; Massini, Vite de Santi, t. 2, p. 232, 3 Oct.

† The Areopagus was so called from The Hill of Mars, Αρειος πάγος, without the walls of Athens, where it stood. This council is thought to have been as ancient as the Athenian nation, though Solon gave it a new form and dignity. The number of the members or judges was not determined, but was sometimes two or three hundred, though at first only seven. For some time no one was admitted among them who had not been archon, that is, the supreme yearly magistrate of the commonwealth, by whose name the year was counted, as at Rome by the consuls. Nor was any one to be adopted into it who was not of the strictest morals, and his conduct without reproach. The assemblies of this court were always held in the night, and the severity of its proceedings made its sentence extremely dreaded. The reputation of the integrity of its judges procured it the highest respect and veneration, so that its decisions were received as oracles. (See Rollin. Hist. Ancienne, t. 4, p. 420; Potter’s Antiquities of Greece, and FF. Catrou and Rouille, Hist. Rom. l. 57, t. 14, p. 61; also Joan, Henrici Mai, Diss. de Gestis Pauli in Urbe Atheniensium, edit ann. 1727, et Jodni Meursii Areopagus ap. Gronovium. Ant. Græcar. t. 5, p. 207, ad 213.

¹ Cohortatio ad Græcos.

* During the three first ages it was a usual reproach of the heathens, that the Christians were poor miserable persons. See Celsus, (ap. Orig. l. 3, n. 4;) Cecilius, (ap. Mim. Felic.;) Lucian, (Dial, de Morte Peregrini, n. 12.) &c. This the Christian Apologists allow in part; but sometimes testify, that there were among them persons illustrious for their birth, dignities, and learning. See Origen. (l. 3, adv. Cels. n. 49, ed. Ben.;) Tertullian, (Apol. c. 37, ad Scap. c. 4,) &c. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Gamaliel, the eunuch of queen Candace, St. Barnabas, &c., were Jews of birth and fortune. Among the Gentiles, king Abgar, the proconsul Sergius Paulus, St. Thecla, and those whom St. Paul saluted in the house of Nero, are early instances that several persons of rank embraced the faith. Flavius Clemens, Flavia Domitilla, and Glabrio who had been Trajan’s colleague in the magistracy, St. Nazarius, martyr under Nero, (see Tillem. t. 2, p. 93,) the senator Apollonius, St. Felicitas, and her seven sons, and many other martyrs, show the same. It is indeed clear from 1 Cor. 1:26, that the number of such that came over to the faith when it was first preached, was small in proportion to the multitude of converts. The reason is assigned by Lactantius: “More among the poor believe the word of God than among the rich, who are bound down by many impediments, and are chained fast slaves to covetousness and other passions; so that they are not able to look up towards heaven, but have their mind bowed down and filed on the earth.” Instit. l. 7, c. 1, p. 517. The pagans called the Christians poor, though many were such only by choice. “Nec de ultima plebe consistimus. si honores vestros et purpuras recusamus.” Minucius Felix in Octav. p. 311. That the first preachers of the faith were strangers to profane learning, was a demonstration of the finger of God in its establishment. See John Lamius, De Erudit. Apostol. an. 1738. Yet in the second age many scholars of the first rank became champions of Christianity; witness Quadratus, Aristides, Justin Martyr, Melito, Athenagoras, Pantænus, &c. In the third, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Heraclas, Dionysius, Minucius Felix, &c.

² Ap. Eus. Hist. l. 3, c. 4, l. 4, c. 23.

† Hilduin abbot of St. Denis, in 814, wrote his Areopagatica, in which, upon the authority of spurious and fabulous records, he pretends that St. Dionysius, the first bishop of Paris, is the same person with the Areopagite; of which mistake, some traces are found in certain other writings. This opinion was unknown before the ninth century, nor was it thought of even by the monk who wrote the life of St. Dionysius of Paris in 730. In a great number of ancient Martyrologies the festivals of these two saints are mentioned as on two different days, and the place and circumstances of their martyrdoms are distinguished. In ancient breviaries, missals, calendars, and litanies the apostle of France is placed after the saints that suffered under Marcus Aurelius; and we are assured by St. Gregory of Tours, and other authentic monuments, that he only arrived in Gaul in 250. The author of the Life of St. Fuscian, Fulbert of Chartres, and Lethaldus, distinguish the two Dionysiuses. See this fully proved by F. Sirmond, Diss. de Duobus Dionys. t. 4. Op. p. 354, and Dr. Lanoy, in express dissertations, Morinus, l. De Ordinationibus. part. 2. c. 3; Gerard Du Bois, Hist. Eccl. Paris, l. 1, c. 3; D. Dionysius de S. Marthe, Gallia Christiana Nova, t. 7, p. 6; Tillemont, t. 4, &c. It is adopted in the Paris, Sens, and other French Breviaries; also by Orsi, Mamachi, and the most accurate and late historians in France, Italy, or other countries.

The works which have gone under the name of the Areopagite, at least ever since the sixth century, consist of a book, Concerning the Celestial Hierarchy; another, Of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy; a treatise, Of the Divine Names; another. Of Mystical Divinity; and ten Epistles, whereof the four first are written to the monk Caius, the fifth to Dorotheus, the sixth to Sosipater, the seventh to bishop Polycarp, the eighth to the monk Demophylus, the ninth to bishop Titus, and the tenth of St. John. They are maintained to be the genuine works of the Areopagite, in express dissertations, by D. Claude David, a Maurist monk, in 1702; by D. Bernard of Sept-Fonds, under the name of Adrian, in 1708; F. Honoratus of St. Mary, a Carmelite friar, in 1720, &c.; but it is now the opinion almost generally received among the learned, that they are supposititious, and were compiled only in the fifth century. Their style is swelling, lofty, and figurative; they are written with care and study, and with a great deal of artifice in the polishing and disposition of the periods, and in the exact method which is observed in the order of the arguments. The doctrine contained in them is everywhere orthodox; and though some parts are abstracted and subtle, the works are useful. The first uncontroverted work in which they are mentioned, is the conference between the Severians (a sect of Eutychians) and the Catholics, held in the emperor Justinian’s palace, in 532, in which these heretics quoted them. St. Maximus and other writers in the following ages made frequent use of them. The author of the letters unjustifiably personates the Areopagite, as is manifest from the seventh, in which he says he observed, at Heliopolis, the miraculous eclipse which happened at the death of Christ. In the eighth, it is said the monk Demophilus had treated harshly and expelled out of the sanctuary a priest and a penitent layman, because he found the latter confessing his sins there to him. The author of the letter reproves him severely, because the priest was his superior, and because he ought not to have shown such inhumanity to a penitent sinner. Upon which occasion he relates, that when a zealous pastor, named Carpus, was weary in endeavoring in vain to reclaim an obstinate sinner, Christ in a vision mildly rebuked him, telling him, he was ready to die a second time for the salvation of sinners. In the book, On the Heavenly Hierarchy, the nine choirs of angels, and their different functions, are explained, with several subtle questions concerning them. The author says, that one of their functions is to sing without ceasing: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts; all the earth is full of thy glory. Which is said also by St. Athanasius and St. Gregory Nazianzen, (Or. 38.) The book On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy is much more useful; for in it are explained the ceremonies of baptism, of the mass, consecration of the holy chrism, the ordination of a bishop, priest, and deacon, the manner of blessing a monk, and the burial of the dead, in which the bishop prays for the remission of the sins of the person deceased. The author adds, that prayers are only useful to those who died well. In the beginning of this book he recommends to Timothy, to whom it is addressed, to keep secret all he shall say to him, and not to discover anything concerning our mysteries, except to those who have been baptized. And chap. 7, he says, he had not set down the words of any of the sacred consecrations and blessings, because it was not lawful to commit them to writing, lest they should be divulged, and exposed to be profaned. He mentions the sign of the cross used in sacred ordinations and consecrations. In the treatise, On the Divine Names, many epithets and names given to the three Divine Persons in the Trinity are expounded. In that, On Mystical Divinity, the author, after having invoked the succor of the Holy Trinity, and prayed to be raised to that eminent degree in which God discovers his divine secrets to pure souls, he teaches Timothy that it is only by the disengagement of the affections from all sensible things, and from the inordinate love of ourselves, that we can be raised to the contemplation of the divine obscurity, that is, the incomprehensible Godhead. He admonishes him not to divulge this mystical theology in the presence of those that cannot persuade themselves that there is any thing above natural and sensible objects; and who, being plunged in worldly affections, and material things, have not as yet acquired a purity of soul by the study of mortification, and the exercise of virtues. He repeats a saying of St. Bartholomew, that, “Theology is both copious and short; the gospel is an abridged word, yet diffusive, and of boundless extent.”

It is certain that this author had learned from the lessons of some sincere and true contemplatives, several just notions and useful maxims concerning mystical theology; though he sometimes mixes certain notions, and uses terms borrowed from the Platonic philosophy, as St. Francis of Sales uses some taken from the modern scholastic Aristotelian philosophy. By this term of mystical theology we are not to under stand any acquired habit or science, such as speculative theology is, but an experimental knowledge and relish of God, which is not acquired, and which no one can set himself to obtain, but to which a soul is raised by God in prayer or contemplation. Or, it is a state of supernatural passive prayer, in which a soul which has previously crucified in herself earthly affections, and being disengaged from worldly things, and exercised in heavenly conversation, is raised to God in such a manner that her powers are fixed on him without reasoning, and without corporeal images painted by the imagination. In this state, by the most fervent quiet prayer, and an internal view of the mind, she beholds God as an immense eternal light, and in an ecstasy contemplates his infinite goodness, love, and other adorable perfections; and in this operation all her affections and powers seem transformed into him by sweet love, she either remaining in the quiet prayer of pure faith, or employing her affections in the most ardent acts of praise, adoration, &c. Out author thus describes this state; (Eccl. Hier. c. 1:) “The sovereign blessedness of God, the very essence of the divinity, the principle of deification, by which those are deified that are to be raised to this gift of union, has bestowed on men the gift of mystic theology, in a spiritual and immaterial manner, not by moving them exteriorly to divine things, but by inspiring their will interiorly, by the irradiation of a lively and pure faith.” We are assured by those who treat of this state, that no one who has not learned it by some degree of experience, can form a notion of it, any more than a blind man can conceive an idea of colors, or one understand Hebrew who has not learned something of that language, says St. Bernard. Let no one aim at, or desire it; let no one dwell on it, or take any complacency in himself about it; for such a disposition leads to pride, presumption, and fatal illusion; but let everyone study in every state through which God shall be pleased to conduct him, and by every means, to improve himself in simplicity of heart, sincere profound humility, and pure and fervent charity.

³ Phil. 3:12, 13, 14.

* His example inspired many others with the like zeal. In 1079, two noblemen, named Sicher and Walther, founded the rich abbey of Anchin, near Douay, in a place where St. Gordan, a holy hermit, had served God with great edification.

† Old Saxony, in the age of Charlemagne, lay betwixt the Rhine, the Yssel, and the Wesel, where are now the bishoprics of Munster, Osnaburgh, and Paderborn, and the county of La Mark. See Cluverius in Germania Antiqua, l. 3. D’Anville, &c.

 Butler, A., The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) IV, 36-42.