Dionysius

Saint Dionysius the Venerable Martyr was a monk and a disciple of the Venerable Martyr James of Kastoria. Together with his elder and with the deacon James, his fellow disciple, he received the crown of martyrdom on 1 November 1520. The Church commemorates all three on this day.

His story is the story of his elder. James was born in a village of the district of Kastoria to Christian parents and was at first a shepherd. Because he had grown rich, his brother denounced him out of envy, and James left for Constantinople, where he traded in sheep. Later he confessed his sins to the Patriarch, gave his wealth to the poor and went to the Holy Mountain, where he became a monk at the Monastery of Docheiariou. He then lived in obedience to the elder Ignatius in the skete of Saint John the Baptist, a dependency of the Monastery of Iviron.

James later withdrew deeper into Athos, where a few disciples gathered around him, among them Dionysius and the deacon James. With them he left the Holy Mountain, spent some time at Meteora and then settled at the monastery of the Forerunner near Nafpaktos. Many came to him for guidance and healing.

The Turks falsely accused him of stirring the Christians to revolt. James was seized together with his two disciples and taken to the bey of Trikala, who held him in prison. From there they were sent in chains to Didymoteicho, to the sultan, and then to Adrianople. They were told to deny Christ, but all three stood firm. They were cruelly tortured over many days, and Dionysius and the deacon James were beaten without mercy. On 1 November 1520 they were hanged.

Their relics were placed in the Monastery of Saint Anastasia the Deliverer from Potions, near Galatista, not far from Thessaloniki. There, under the abbot Theonas, a disciple of Saint James and later Archbishop of Thessaloniki, nearly a hundred brethren gathered within a short time. The life and service of the martyrs were written by a contemporary, Theophanes the Rhetor of Thessaloniki.