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Icon of Our Holy Father
Dionysius Exiguus (the Little), abbot of Rome (+ ca. 544)
Feast: Sept. 1
Our holy monastic father
Dionysius was surnamed Exiguus, "the Little," more likely because of
his humility than his having been a short man. He was born about the
year 470, and was said to be Scythian (Russian) by ancestry, but in
acculturation and training a quintessential Roman. He was a friend and
fellow student of the Blessed Cassiodorus (who grouped together the
Seven Penitential Psalms which feature prominently in Western rite
services). The greater part of his life was spent at Rome, where he
governed a monastery as abbot. He translated many important documents
into Latin, including the Life of St. Pachomius, the "Instruction of
St. Proclus of Constantinople" for the Armenians, the "De opificio
hominis" of St. Gregory of Nyssa, the history of the discovery of the
head of St. John the Baptist, and other works.
Of great importance were the
contributions of Dionysius to the compilation for the West of church
canons, similar to the Nomokanon in Eastern Christendom. His
collection, called "Collectio Dionysiana," embraces (1) a collection of
synodal decrees, of which he has left two editions:—(a) "Codex canonum
Ecclesiæ Universæ". This contains canons of Oriental synods and
councils only in Greek and Latin, including those of the four
œcumenical councils from Nicæa (325) to Chalcedon (451).—(b) "Codex
canonum ecclesiasticarum". This is in Latin only; its contents agree
generally with the other, but the Council of Ephesus (431) is omitted,
while the so-called "Canons of the Apostles" and those of Sardica are
included, as well as 138 canons of the African Council of Carthage
(419).—(c) Of another bilingual version of Greek canons, undertaken at
the instance of Pope Hormisdas, only the preface has been preserved.
(2) A collection of papal Constitutions (Collectio decretorum
Pontificum Romanorum) from Siricius to Anastasius II (384-498).
It is to St. Dionysius that we owe our custom of dating years from the
birth of Christ. He assigned the birth of the God-Man to March 25 in
the year 754 from Rome's founding. Thus he did away with dating things
by the Era of Diocletian. The Era of the Incarnation, often called the
Dionysian Era, was soon much used in Italy and, to some extent, a
little later in Spain. During the eighth and ninth centuries it was
adopted in England. Charlemagne is said to have been the first
Christian ruler to employ it officially. It was not until the tenth\
century that it was employed in the papal chancery. Abbot Dionysius
also gave attention to the calculation of Pascha, advocating the
adoption of the Alexandrian Cycle of nineteen years, which is still
used by the whole Orthodox Church.
Holy Venerable Father
Dionysius, pray to God for us!
Icon: of unknown
provenance.
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