Denis of Paris

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Saint Denis of Paris
)
This article is about the saint. For places in Paris called Saint Denis, see Saint Denis (disambiguation).
A martyr carrying his severed head in his hands; a bishop's mitre; city; furnace[2]
PatronageParis; against frenzy, strife, headaches, hydrophobia, San Dionisio (Parañaque), possessed people

Denis of Paris was a 3rd-century

bishop of Athens. Assuming Denis's historicity, it is now considered more likely that he suffered under the persecution of the emperor Decius shortly after AD 250. [citation needed
]

Denis is the most famous

basilica, around which grew up the French city of Saint-Denis
, now a suburb of Paris.

Name

The medieval and modern

Dionysios
.

Life

Beheading of Denis and of his companions, tympanum of the north portal of the Basilica of Saint-Denis

River Seine. Roman Paris lay on the higher ground of the Left Bank
, away from the river.

Martyrdom

Denis and his companions were so effective in converting people that the

pagan priests became alarmed over their loss of followers. At their instigation, the Roman Governor arrested the missionaries. After a long imprisonment, Denis and two of his clergy were executed by beheading[4] on the highest hill in Paris (now Montmartre), which was likely to have been a druidic holy place. The martyrdom of Denis and his companions is popularly believed to have given the site its current name, derived from the Latin Mons Martyrum "The Martyrs' Mountain",[1] although the name is possibly derived from Mons Mercurii et Mons Martis, Hill of Mercury and Mars.[6] After his head was cut off, Denis is said to have picked it up and walked several miles from the summit of the hill, preaching a sermon the entire way, making him one of many cephalophores in hagiology. Of the many accounts of this martyrdom, this is noted in detail in the Golden Legend and in Butler's Lives Of The Saints.[7] The site where he stopped preaching and actually died was marked by a small shrine that developed into the Basilica of Saint-Denis, which became the burial place for the kings of France. Another account has his corpse being thrown into the Seine, but recovered and buried later that night by his converts.[2][4]

Veneration

Late Gothic statue of Saint Denis, limestone, formerly polychromed (Musée de Cluny)
St Denis in the Nuremberg Chronicle

Veneration of Denis began soon after his death. The bodies of Denis, Eleutherius, and Rusticus were buried on the spot of their martyrdom, where the construction of the

basilica was begun by Genevieve, assisted by the people of Paris.[8]
Her Vita Sanctae Genovefae attests the presence of a shrine near the present basilica by the close of the fifth century.

Dagobert I, great-grandson of Chlothar I, had the first Royal Basilica built. The Merovingian tradition was, originally, to bury kings such as Clovis and Chlothildis in Paris at Abbey St-Genevieve/Genovefa, as Clovis had ordered its construction in 502 AD. Yet Chilperic I had his own mother, Dowager Queen Aregunda, buried at Saint-Denis. His grandson was clearly following a family tradition. Aregunda's (death about 580 AD) tomb was discovered in 1959, and her burial items can be seen at the Saint-Germain-en-Laye museum. A successor church was erected by Fulrad, who became abbot in 749/50 and was closely linked with the accession of the Carolingians to the Merovingian throne.

In time, St Denis came to be regarded as the

Abbot Suger removed the relics of Denis, and those associated with Rustique and Eleuthére, from the crypt, to reside under the high altar of the Saint-Denis he rebuilt, 1140–44.[10]

In traditional Catholic practice, Saint Denis is honoured as one of the

diabolical possession and headaches[11]
and with Geneviève is one of the patron saints of Paris.

Feast

Last Communion and Martyrdom of Saint Denis, by Henri Bellechose, 1416, which shows the martyrdom of both Denis and his companions

9 October is celebrated as the feast of Saint Denis and companions, a priest named Rusticus and a

Roman Calendar in the year 1568 by Pope Pius V
, although it had been celebrated since at least the year 800.

Saint Denis is also remembered with a commemoration[12] in many Anglican Provinces, including the Church of England[13] and the Anglican Church of Canada,[14] on October 9.

Confusion with Dionysius the Areopagite

Since at least the ninth century, the legends of

Pierre Abelard gives a short account of the strength of this belief and the monastery's harsh opposition to challenges to their claim. Abelard jokingly pointed out a possibility that the founder of the Abbey could have been another Dionysius, who is mentioned as Dionysius of Corinth by Eusebius. This irritated the community so much that eventually Abelard left in bitterness. As late as the sixteenth century, scholars might still argue for an Eastern origin of the Basilica of Saint-Denis: one was Godefroi Tillman, in a long preface to a paraphrase of the Letters of the Areopagite, printed in Paris in 1538 by Charlotte Guillard.[16] Most historiographers agree that this conflated legend is completely erroneous.[5]

Depiction in art

Painting by Jean Bourdichon

Denis' headless walk has led to his being depicted in art decapitated and dressed as a

halo
in this circumstance poses a unique challenge for the artist. Some put the halo where the head used to be; others have Saint Denis carrying the halo along with the head. Even more problematic than the halo was the issue of how much of his head Denis should be shown carrying.

Throughout much of the Middle Ages, the Abbey of St Denis and the

canons of Notre-Dame Cathedral were in dispute over ownership of the saint's head. The Abbey claimed that they had the entire body, whilst the Cathedral claimed to possess the top of his head which, they claimed, had been severed by the executioner's first blow.[17] Thus while most depictions of St Denis show him holding his entire head, in others, the patrons have shown their support for the cathedral's claim by depicting him carrying just the crown of his skull, for example in the mid 13th-century window showing the story at Le Mans Cathedral (Bay 111).[18]

A 1317 illustrated manuscript depicting The Life of Saint Denis, once owned by

Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It was given to the king by his chaplain Gilles, the abbot of Saint-Denis, having been commissioned by Jean de Pontoise, the previous Abbot of Saint-Denis. The manuscript contains seventy-seven miniatures illustrating the life and martyrdom of Saint Denis.[19]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b "St. Denis and Companions". Saint of the Day. Archived from the original on 2005-04-22. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  2. ^ a b Jones, Terry. "Denis". Patron Saints Index. Archived from the original on 2007-01-07. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  3. ^ "Beatus Dionysius Parisiorum episcopus diversis pro Christi nomine adfectus poenis praesentem vitam gladio immente finivit." "History of the Franks I," 30.
  4. ^
    ISBN 971-91595-4-5
    .
  5. ^ a b "St. Denis". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. Robert Appleton Company. 1908. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  6. ^ "Légende Montmartre". www.montmartre.fr. Archived from the original on 2010-01-13. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  7. Viollet-le-Duc
    's restorations (illustration, in infobox).
  8. ^ a b c d Vadnal, Jane (June 1998). "Images of Medieval Art and Architecture: Saint Denis". Excerpt from "Sacred and Legendary Art" by Anna Jameson, 1911. Archived from the original on 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  9. ^ Baynes (1878).
  10. ^ Suger, "De rebus in administratione sua gestis," xxxi, and "De Consecratione," v.
  11. ^ Miller, Jennifer. "Fourteen Holy Helpers". Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  12. ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  13. ^ "Holy Days". The Church of England. 7 October 2017.
  14. ^ "The Calendar". 16 October 2013. Archived from the original on 22 October 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  15. Pope Clement I in the earliest Vita of St Genevieve (chapter 17, MGH, SS rer. Merov. 3, 222
    ).
  16. ^ "Georgii Pachymerae... Paraphrasis in decem Epistolas B. Dionysii Arepagitae"; see Beatrice Beech, "Charlotte Guillard: A Sixteenth-Century Business Woman," Renaissance Quarterly No. 36, 3 (Autumn 1983:345–367) p. 349.
  17. ^ See Gabriel Spiegel, The Cult of St Denis and Capetian Kingship, in Saints and their Cults, Stephen Wilson (ed), 1985. p.144ff
  18. ^ Whatling, Stuart. "Photographs of Le Mans Cathedral—Outer Clerestory Windows—Bay 111, Panel B5". Corpus Narratologica. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
  19. ^ "Life of Saint Denis". employees.oneonta.edu.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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