[Rank]
S. Dionysii Episcopi, Rustici and Eleutherii Martyrum;;Semiduplex;;2;;vide C3

[Rule]
vide C3;
9 lectiones

[Oratio]
O God, Who, as upon this day, didst make thy blessed Witness and Bishop Denys strong to wrestle and to suffer, and Who wast pleased to give unto him, for fellow workers in declaring thy glory among the heathen, thy servants Rusticus and Eleutherius, grant unto us, we beseech thee, to be like unto them in esteeming the good things of this world but lightly, and in fearing not at all the evil things of the same.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio4]
Denys was an Athenian, one of the Judges of the Court of the Areopagus, and a man of varied and deep learning. There is a story concerning him that on the day when the Lord Christ was nailed to the Cross, and when he saw the unnatural eclipse of the sun, Denys said Either the God of nature is suffering, or the frame-work of the world is breaking up. When the Apostle Paul came to Athens, and was taken and brought unto the Areopagus, and gave an account of the faith which he preached, affirming that Christ had risen from the dead, and that all the dead likewise are to live again, some mocked, and others said We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit, certain men clave unto him, and believed among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite. (Acts xvii. 3234)

[Lectio5]
Denys was baptized by the Apostle, and set over the Church of the Athenians. He came afterwards to Rome, and was sent by Pope Clement into Gaul, to preach the Gospel. There followed him to Paris one Rusticus a Priest, and Eleutherius a Deacon. He turned many to Christ, and was therefore hided with rods by command of Fescennius the Praefect, and, forasmuch as he still went on bravely preaching Christ, he was tortured with fire upon a grating, and put to diverse other torments, and his comrades likewise.

[Lectio6]
They bore their torments bravely and cheerfully, and then Denys, being over an hundred years of age, and his two comrades with him, suffered by the axe upon the 9th day of October. This is that Denys concerning whom the old story is told that after his head was cut off he took it in his hands and walked two thousand paces, carrying it all the while. He was the author of some marvellous books, clear proofs of a mind fixed in heaven, upon The Names of God, upon The Orders in Heaven and in the Church, upon The Mystic Theology, and diverse others.