. Patron saint of France and bishop of Paris. The earliest Life of the saint, known from its incipit as the Gloriosae (ca. 500), stated that Denis (Dionysius) had been sent to preach to the pagans by a “successor of the Apostles.” Settling in Paris, he built a church and performed many miracles. Because of his success, he and his companions, the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius, were tortured and executed. However, they never ceased to confess their belief in the Trinity and their faith in the Lord. The pagans had planned to throw their bodies into the Seine, but a pious matron took them and buried them six miles from Paris. There she built a mausoleum and later a basilica, where miraculous cures occurred.
This text, or a version of it, was known to Gregory of Tours, who stated in his Liber historiae Francorum that seven bishops were sent from Rome to Gaul at the time of the emperor Decius (r. 249–51). The vita of St. Geneviève (ca. 520) recounts that it was at Geneviève’s urging that the Parisians built ca. 475 the first church in honor of the saint and that it was St. Clement of Rome (pope, 90–100) who had sent Denis to Gaul. (The earliest episcopal list from Paris, too, mentions that Denis was the first bishop of Paris.) The cult of the saint thus seems to have been in existence by the late 5th century and the first Passion shortly afterward.
The early 9th-century Passion Post beatam et gloriosam added the details that Denis of Paris was the same as the Dionysius the Areopagite converted in Athens by the Apostle Paul (Acts 17:34); that he was consecrated bishop by Pope Clement as he passed through Rome; that the martyrs were executed on a hill a mile from Paris (i.e., Montmartre); that after his decollation, the saint picked up his head and carried it two miles; and that the matron who buried the saint was called Catulla after “Catullacus,” the old name for Saint-Denis.
It was probably in response to the apostolic character of the saint that in 827 the Byzantine emperor Michael the Stammerer sent a manuscript of the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite to Louis the Pious, who gave it to the abbey of Saint-Denis. Its abbot, Hilduin (r. 814–40), translated the works of Pseudo-Dionysius from Greek into Latin; his Passio sanctissimi Dionysii explicitly joined Denis of Paris to Dionysius the Areopagite. Hilduin added, too, that the night before Denis was executed, as he was
St. Denis between angels, from Reims cathedral. Photograph courtesy of Joan A.Holladay.
celebrating Mass in prison with his disciples, just as he was about to receive the sacrament, Christ came and took the eucharist from his hand and gave it to him himself. The next day, after the execution, Denis picked up his head and, carrying it, walked five miles from Montmartre to Saint-Denis.
Although the legend had its critics, it was quickly accepted and appears among the lessons of the Roman breviary and the liturgy of Saint-Denis. The abbey, founded by King Dagobert I ca. 624, was especially favored by the Carolingians. Denis developed from being the patron of a monastery to a saint who was the object of a special devotion from the kings of France and in turn accorded them and their country a special protection. This protection was connected first with King Dagobert, whose devotion to the saint was portrayed in a series of apocryphal tales in the Gesta Dagoberti.
From the time of Hugh Capet (r. 987–96), a royal flag was deposited at Saint-Denis, a flag that was later identified with the Oriflamme, the flag given to Charlemagne by the pope. In 1124, when Louis VI prepared to march against the emperor Henry V, he came to the abbey, took the abbey’s standard from the altar, and announced that the saint was the special protector of the realm. The royal flag and the abbey’s standard were eventually viewed as one and the same, and the saint was credited with bringing victory to the armies of the kings of France.
It was to accommodate the crowds that flocked to the tomb of the saint that Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis (r. 1122–51) enlarged the abbey church and translated the relics of the saint to a new altar. By the 13th century, chroniclers at the abbey had woven together the legend of St. Denis and the history of France. Notable texts in this development are the Vita et actus beati Dionysii, the Vie de saint Denis, and the Grandes Chroniques de France. In this process, St. Denis became not only the patron and protector of the French kings, but of France itself. His feast day is October 9.
