Dionysius of Rome

Dionysius of Rome was bishop of Rome from 259 to 268. He took up the helm of the Church after the persecution of Valerian, in which Sixtus II and many clergy had perished, and restored order in the life of the Church of Rome. He is counted a saint of the undivided Church and is commemorated on 26 December.

Restoring the Church

A priest of the Church of Rome, he was elected on 22 July 259, after almost a year in which the persecution had left the see vacant. Soon afterward Emperor Gallienus ended the persecution and gave back to the Christians their places of prayer and cemeteries. Dionysius ordered Church life anew, entrusting to the priests the care of the parishes and the cemeteries. He also cared for brethren in other lands: Saint Basil the Great recalls that Dionysius sent the Christians of Cappadocia a letter of encouragement and money to ransom those taken captive by barbarians in the time of the Gothic raids.

Defence of the faith

He defended the right teaching on the Holy Trinity. Dionysius of Alexandria, in a letter against Sabellianism, had spoken inexactly about the Son, and some of his own faithful accused him at Rome. Dionysius of Rome held a synod and wrote, in his own name and the synod's, a doctrinal letter rejecting both those who confused the divine Persons and those who regarded the Son as a creature. Fragments of it were preserved by Saint Athanasius the Great. The Alexandrian then gave his explanations in an Apology. The bishops gathered at Antioch, who condemned Paul of Samosata, sent word of the council both to Dionysius of Rome and to Maximus of Alexandria.

Repose

He reposed in the Lord on 26 December 268 and was buried in the catacomb of Callistus. He is the first bishop of Rome not presented as a martyr. The calendars that commemorate him, among them the Roman one and a western Orthodox one, place him on 26 December.