Dionysius in Exile

As for the persecution that blew so fiercely in Valerian’s time, and what Dionysius himself suffered along with others for his piety toward the God of the universe, his own words will show. He sets them out in reply to Germanus, one of the bishops of his time, who was trying to speak ill of him, in this way: [a] “I am in danger, truly, of falling into great foolishness and stupidity, being forced by necessity to tell of God’s marvelous arrangement concerning us. But since it says, ‘It is good to hide a king’s secret, but glorious to reveal the works of God,’ I will come to grips with the violence of Germanus. [b] I came before Aemilian not alone. My fellow presbyter Maximus followed me, and the deacons Faustus, Eusebius and Chaeremon, and one of the brothers from Rome who was with us came in too. [c] Aemilian did not begin by saying to me, ‘Do not hold assemblies.’ For him that was superfluous and the last thing, since he was going straight back to the first point. His concern was not that we should not gather others, but that we ourselves should not be Christians. He ordered me to give that up, thinking that if I changed, the others would follow me. [e] I answered, not unfittingly and not far from the saying ‘We must obey God rather than men.’ I testified plainly that I worship the only God who is, and no other, and that I would not change, nor would I ever stop being a Christian. At this he ordered us to go off to a village near the desert called Cephro. [f]

But hear the very words spoken on both sides, as they were entered in the record. When Dionysius, Faustus, Maximus, Marcellus and Chaeremon had been brought in, Aemilian, acting prefect, said: ‘I have also spoken with you off the record about the kindness that our lords have shown you. [h] They have given you the chance of safety, if you are willing to turn to what is according to nature and worship the gods who preserve their empire, and forget those that are contrary to nature. What, then, do you say to this? For I do not expect that you will be ungrateful for their kindness, since they are urging you toward what is better.’ Dionysius answered: ‘Not all people worship all gods; each worships some, those they believe in. We, then, honor and worship the one God, the Maker of all things, who also entrusted the empire to the most God-beloved Augusti, Valerian and Gallienus. To him we pray continually for their empire, that it may remain unshaken.’ Aemilian, acting prefect, said to them: ‘But who prevents you from worshiping this one too, if he is a god, together with those who are gods by nature? You have been ordered to worship gods, and gods whom everyone knows.’ Dionysius answered: ‘We worship no other.’ Aemilian, acting prefect, said to them: ‘I see that you are at once ungrateful and blind to the gentleness of the Augusti. Therefore you will not stay in this city, but will be sent off to the parts of Libya, to a place called Cephro. I have chosen this place by the command of our Augusti. It will in no way be permitted to you or to any others either to hold meetings or to enter the so-called cemeteries. [j] If anyone is seen not to have gone to this place I have ordered, or is found at any gathering, he will bring the danger on his own head, for the necessary severity will not be lacking. Go off, then, where you have been ordered.’ And though I was ill, he hurried me away, not granting even a single day’s delay. What leisure, then, did I still have to hold assemblies or not to hold them?”

Then, after other things, he says: “But with the Lord we did not stay away from the visible assembly either. Those in the city I gathered all the more earnestly, as though I were with them, ‘absent in body,’ as he said, ‘but present in spirit.’ And at Cephro a large church stayed with us, some of the brothers following us from the city and others joining us from Egypt. There too ‘God opened to us a door for the word.’ [k] At first we were persecuted and stoned. But afterward not a few of the Gentiles left their idols and turned to God. The word had not been received among them before; it was then sown among them for the first time through us. And as though God had brought us to them for this purpose, when we had fulfilled this service he led us away again. For Aemilian, it seems, wanted to move us to rougher and more Libyan places. He ordered those from everywhere to stream into the Mareotis, assigning villages throughout the country to each group, but he posted us rather on the road, to be the first seized. Clearly he was arranging and preparing things so that whenever he wanted to arrest us he would have us all easy to catch. [m]

When I had been ordered to go off to Cephro, I did not even know where the place was, and had hardly ever heard its name before; yet I went off cheerfully and calmly. But when I was told that I was to move to the district of Colluthion, those present know how I took it. [n] Here I will accuse myself. At first I was upset and very angry. The places were better known to us and more familiar, but they said the area was empty of brothers and of earnest people, and exposed to the annoyances of travelers and the raids of robbers. But I found comfort when the brothers reminded me that it was nearer the city. Cephro had brought us much contact with the brothers from Egypt, so that we could hold church more widely; but there, with the city closer, we would enjoy more often the sight of those who are truly beloved, closest and dearest to us. They would come and stay, and, as in the more distant suburbs, there would be assemblies in separate groups. And so it turned out.”

And after other things he writes again about what happened to him: “Germanus is so proud of his many confessions! He has so many things to tell that happened against him! Can he count up as many as we can: sentences, confiscations, proscriptions, plundering of goods, loss of rank, disregard of worldly glory, contempt for the praises of governors and councils, and the endurance of the opposite, threats and outcries, dangers and persecutions, wandering and distress and every kind of affliction, such as befell me under Decius and Sabinus, and such as continue until now under Aemilian? But where was Germanus seen? What is said about him? [o] But I will step back from the great foolishness into which I am falling because of Germanus. For that reason I also leave the detailed account of everything that happened to the brothers who know it, to tell.” [p]

The same writer, in his letter to Domitius and Didymus, again mentions the events of the persecution in these words: “As for our own people, since they are many and unknown to you, it would be superfluous to list them by name. But know that men and women, young men and old, girls and old women, soldiers and civilians, every race and every age, some through whips and fire, others through the sword, have won the contest and received their crowns. [q] For others, a very long time has not proved enough for them to appear acceptable to the Lord, as it seems it has not for me up to now either. That is why he has put me off until the time he himself knows to be suitable, he who says, ‘At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.’ [r] Since you ask about our affairs and want to be told how we are doing, you have certainly heard how we were being led away as prisoners by a centurion and magistrates and their soldiers and attendants, I and Gaius, Faustus, Peter and Paul, when some people from the Mareotis came on us and carried us off by force, dragging us, though we were unwilling and would not follow. But now I, Gaius and Peter are alone, bereft of the other brothers, and shut up in a desert and parched place in Libya, three days’ journey from Paraetonium.” [s]

And further down he says: “In the city, the presbyters Maximus, Dioscorus, Demetrius and Lucius have gone into hiding and visit the brothers secretly; for Faustinus and Aquila, who are more prominent in the world, are wandering in Egypt. Of the deacons, Faustus, Eusebius and Chaeremon have been left after those who died in the island. Eusebius is one whom God strengthened and prepared from the start to carry out zealously the services for the confessors in prison, and to lay out the bodies of the perfect and blessed martyrs, not without danger. For even now the governor does not let up, [t] as I said before, cruelly putting to death some of those brought before him, tearing others with tortures, and wasting others away in prisons and chains. He orders that no one go near them and searches to see whether anyone is seen doing so. And yet God gives rest to the hard-pressed through the eagerness and perseverance of the brothers.”

So much from Dionysius. But it should be known that Eusebius, whom he called a deacon, became bishop of Laodicea in Syria a little later. Maximus, whom he then called a presbyter, succeeded Dionysius himself in the ministry over the brothers at Alexandria. And Faustus, who was with him and distinguished himself at that time in his confession, was kept alive until the persecution of our own day, and then, very old and full of days, he was made perfect by martyrdom in our own time, beheaded. Such were the things that befell Dionysius at that time. [u]