Above: Roman Greece
SAINT DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH (DIED CIRCA 180)
Roman Catholic Bishop of Corinth
His feast transferred from April 8
We know of St. Dionysius mainly via Eusebius of Caesarea (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/feast-of-st-eusebius-of-caesarea-may-30/), author of the great Ecclesiastical History. Book 4, Chapter 23 tells us of the saint, Bishop of Corinth circa 170-180. St. Dionysius wrote many epistles. One went to his sister, Chrysophora. Others went to congregations. Eusebius wrote that the saint argued against the Marcionite heresy, encouraged material and financial aid to the poor, and advocated a strong Christianity neither fixated on unrealistic and burdensome purity codes nor consisting of what Eusebius described as
milky doctrine…under a discipline calculated only for children.
Those are timeless principles. People continue to impose unrealistic burdens related to moral perfectionism upon each other. Anti-semitism, a key element of Marcionism, has not gone away entirely. And, as much as theological standards have always mattered, grace, a wondrous gift from God, remains critical in Christianity. Grace is also unfortunately lacking in many professing quarters. Yet it ought not to become an excuse for watered-down sloganeering, never a valid substitute for sound theology.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 25, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Good Shepherd, king of love,
accept our thanks and praise
for all the love and care we have received;
and for your servant, Saint Dionysius of Corinth.
May our care for each other grow constantly
more reverent and more discerning. Amen.
Ezekiel 34:11-16
Psalm 15 or 99
1 Peter 5:1-4
John 21:15-19
–A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989), pages 681-682
