Pope Dionysius (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Διονύσιος) was the

bishop of Rome The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

from 22 July 259 AD to his death on 26 December 268. His task was to reorganise the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, after the persecutions of

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Valerian I, and the edict of toleration by his successor

Gallienus Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empire. He ...

. He also helped rebuild the churches of

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, devastated by the marauding

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

Pontificate

Dionysius was born in Terranova da Sibari in the early 3rd century. He was elected pope in 259, after the martyrdom of

Sixtus II Pope Sixtus II (), also written as Pope Xystus II, was bishop of Rome from 31 August 257 until his death on 6 August 258. He was killed along with seven deacons, including Lawrence of Rome, during the persecution of Christians by the Emperor V ...

in 258. The

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

had been vacant for nearly a year because it was difficult to elect a new pope during the violent persecution which

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

faced. When the oppression had begun to subside, Dionysius was raised to the office of Bishop of Rome. Emperor Valerian I, who had led the tyranny, was captured and killed by the

King of Persia The monarchs of Iran ruled for over two and a half millennia, beginning as early as the 7th century BC and enduring until the 20th century AD. The earliest Iranian king is generally considered to have been either Deioces of the Median dynasty () ...

in 260.Kirsch, Johann Peter (1909). "Pope St. Dionysius" in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The new emperor,

, issued an edict of

toleration Toleration is when one allows or permits an action, idea, object, or person that they dislike or disagree with. Political scientist Andrew R. Murphy explains that "We can improve our understanding by defining 'toleration' as a set of social or ...

, restoring the churches, cemeteries and other properties it had held, ushering in the nearly 40-year " Little Peace of the Church". To the new pope fell the task of reshaping the Catholic Church, which had fallen into great disorder. Teaching regarding the relation of God to the

Logos ''Logos'' (, ; ) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric, as well as religion (notably Logos (Christianity), Christianity); among its connotations is that of a rationality, rational form of discourse that relies on inducti ...

had arisen from Bishop Dionysius in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

. The pope in Rome called for explanations; a satisfactory response duly arrived back, notwithstanding expostulation about the propriety of all this from some of the Alexandrian Christians. To rebuild, and to ransom those held captive, Pope Dionysius sent large sums of money to the churches of

, devastated by marauding

. Following Emperor Gallienus' edict of toleration, he brought order to the church and helped secure a peace that lasted until 303, some 35 years after his death on 26 December 268. According to St. Athanasius, Pope St. Dionysius retroactively condemned Arianism far before the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea on behalf of the entire Church saying, "For Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, having written also against those who said that the Son of God was a creature and a created thing, it is manifest that not now for the first time but from of old the heresy of the Arian adversaries of Christ has been ''anathematised by all''." In art, Dionysius is portrayed in papal vestments, along with a book.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dionysius 01 268 deaths 3rd-century Christian saints 3rd-century Romans Greek popes Greek Roman Catholics Papal saints Popes Year of birth unknown 3rd-century popes

Pontificate

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