Denis, Saint

Denis, Saint (dĕn`ĭs, dənē`), fl. 3d cent.?, patron of France. He is said to have been first bishop of Paris and to have died a martyr on Montmartre. His shrine was Saint-Denis. The Latin of the name is Dionysius; he was long identified with Dionysius the Areopagite. Feast: Oct. 9.

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Denis, Saint

 or Saint Denys

(died 258?, Paris; Western feast day October 9; Eastern feast day October 3) Patron saint of France and traditionally the first bishop of Paris. Probably born in Rome, he was, according to the 6th-century historian and bishop Gregory of Tours, one of seven bishops sent to convert the people of Gaul during the reign of Decius. Little is known of his life; he is believed to have been martyred during the persecutions of the emperor Valerian. A 9th-century legend says that he was beheaded on Montmartre and that his decapitated body carried his head to the area northeast of Paris where the Benedictine abbey of St. Denis was founded.