Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth

Who was Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth?

Saint Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth lived about the year 171. His feast day is commemorated on April 8.

The date is fixed by the fact that he wrote to Pope St Soter. Eusebius in his Chronicle placed his "floruit" in the eleventh year of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. When Hegesippus was at Corinth in the time of Pope Anicetus, Primus was bishop, while Bacchyllus was Bishop of Corinth at the time of the Paschal controversy. Dionysius is only known to us through Eusebius, for Jerome used no other authority. Eusebius knew a collection of seven of the Catholic Letters to the Churches of Dionysius, together with a letter to him from Pinytus, Bishop of Knossus, and a private letter of spiritual advice to a lady named Chrysophora.

Eusebius mentions a letter to the Lacedaemonians, teaching orthodoxy, and enjoining peace and union. Another letter was to the Athenians, stirring up their faith exhorting them to live according to the Gospel, since they were not far from apostasy. Dionysius spoke of the recent martyrdom of their bishop, Publius, and says that Dionysius the Areopagite was the first Bishop of Athens. To the Nicomedians he wrote against Marcionism.