Saint Denis
First bishop of Paris and martyrThird century
Feast · October 9
- Where to pray
- Saint-Denis, Montmartre, La Chapelle
- Patron of
- France and of Paris
Life
Gregory of Tours, writing in the sixth century, records that Denis was bishop of the Parisii and was beheaded with the sword. He had come from Italy to evangelize Gaul in the time of the emperor Decius, and he died shortly after 250, in the persecution of Decius or, by other reckonings, of Valerian.
The earliest account of his passion, written about 600, is legendary. It gives him two companions, the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius, and tradition places their martyrdom on the highest hill of Paris, Montmartre, a name that may come from the Latin Mons Martyrum, the mount of the martyrs. According to the legend, Denis rose after his beheading, took up his head and walked several miles to the place where he was buried, which is why he is invoked against headaches.
In 836 Hilduin, abbot of Saint-Denis, identified him with Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian converted by Saint Paul (Acts 17:34). Historians judge the identification unfounded.
Further reading: Joan of Arc in France: The Places of Her Life; Reading a Gothic Cathedral: A Guide for Pilgrims.
Cult and relics
Veneration began soon after his death. Saint Genevieve had a basilica built over his tomb north of Paris in the fifth century. Dagobert, who died in 639, was the first king buried there, and the abbey of Saint-Denis became the burial church of the kings of France: forty-three kings, thirty-two queens, sixty-three princes and princesses and ten servants of the kingdom were laid there between the seventh and the nineteenth century. On June 11, 1144, in the presence of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine, Abbot Suger moved the remains of Denis, Rusticus and Eleutherius from the crypt to the altar of his new choir, the first Gothic choir. The kings went to war under the Oriflamme of Saint Denis, and a copy of it is kept in the basilica. Since 1966 the basilica has been the cathedral of the diocese of Saint-Denis.
At Montmartre, the chapel of the Martyrium was built in 1887 over the place where tradition puts his death. Saint Ignatius of Loyola and his first companions made their vows there on August 15, 1534. The church of Saint-Denys-de-la-Chapelle, rebuilt in the twelfth century on a chapel founded by Genevieve, kept his relics by tradition until their transfer to the abbey in 636.
In art
Denis is usually shown as a mitered bishop holding his own head, and artists hesitated over where to place his halo. Because the abbey and the canons of Notre-Dame disputed the possession of his head, some works show him holding only the top of his skull, as in a window of the mid-thirteenth century in the cathedral of Le Mans. The Musée de Cluny in Paris keeps a statue of the saint from the thirteenth century, and a nineteenth-century statue from Viollet-le-Duc’s restoration stands on a portal of Notre-Dame. The Bibliothèque nationale de France holds a Life of Saint Denis of 1317 with seventy-seven miniatures.
Patron of
Patron of France and of Paris; one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, invoked against headaches.
Where to pray
- Saint-DenisThe basilica cathedral built over his tomb, with the tombs of the kings and the choir of Abbot Suger, where his relics were placed in 1144.
- Montmartre, ParisThe chapel of the Martyrium at 11 rue Yvonne-Le-Tac, built in 1887 where tradition places his martyrdom and where Saint Ignatius made his vows in 1534.
- La Chapelle, ParisThe church of Saint-Denys-de-la-Chapelle at 16 rue de la Chapelle, rebuilt in the twelfth century on the chapel founded by Saint Genevieve.
On our ways: Saint-Denis.