Remember that passage in the synoptic gospels (Luke 2:24, Matthew 18:1, Mark 9:34) where the disciples start arguing about which one of them is the greatest? Jesus basically tells them to get a life (by losing it). Here at Lent Madness, however, Dionysius and Irene are battling to resolve the question once and for all. In the Battle of the Greats, Dionysius the Great takes on Irene the Great as we crank things back up for another week of saintly action. The winner will take on Brigid of Kildare.
We're glad to have the drama of Friday's server crash behind us and Lent Madness is now being hosted on a shiny new purple server using a company that understands "unlimited bandwidth" to actually mean "unlimited bandwidth." So, vote (once), comment, tell all all your friends to log on at the exact same moment and we should be fine. Thanks for collectively having the patience of a, well, saint.
Dionysius the Great
Dionysius was born sometime around 190 to a well-to-do pagan family. He attended a church school and was educated to be a priest. He was a bright and well-read child and a student of the scholar Origen. Dionysius became head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria in 232 and was elevated to Bishop of Alexandria in 248, succeeding Heraklas in both posts.
In 249 a series of riots broke out and anti-Christian violence ensued. This soon evolved into the Decian Persecutions. Christians were subjected to all manner of torture and cruelty, with the goal to force them to sacrifice to false gods. It was a time of martyrdom and forced migration as many fled to the deserts for safety.
Dionysius was among those who fled but was later seized after being recognized. He was ultimately freed by a party of Christians and resumed his exile in the desert where he remained until the persecutions came to an end in 251.
Dionysius is remembered especially for his role in how to treat Christians who had lapsed during the persecutions. Many believed there was no possibility for readmission to Holy Communion and the Church after such apostasies. Dionysius, however, offered a way toward reconciliation. He said that after a period of penance and re-baptism, those who had succumbed to pressure would be welcomed back into the Church.
A prayer penned by Dionysius reads,“O God the Father, Origin of Divinity, good beyond all that is good, fair beyond all that is fair, in whom is calmness, peace, concord: Heal the dissensions that divide us from one another, and bring us back into the unity of love that resembles your divine nature.”
Upon returning to Alexandria, Dionysius took up extensive writing, especially opposing heresy and exploring scripture. His work in interpreting scripture was especially admired.
In 257, at the instigation of Emperor Valerian, Christians were once again under persecution and Dionysius was exiled when he refused to sacrifice to pagan gods. After two years of exile, he returned to a city plagued by disease and wracked by violence. In this environment he served five more years as bishop until his death in 265.
Persecution, plague, and violence marked the life of Dionysius, and yet through all of this he remained faithful and diligent, causing Saint Basil to term him “Dionysius the Great.”
Collect for Dionysius the Great
Almighty God, you called your servant Dionysius the Great to be a champion of reconciliation during times of great fear and persecution. Grant us the grace to seek the calm, peace, and concord that mark the things of the kingdom of God, reminding us that our greatest consolation may be found in pondering your holy words, even in the darkest of times. Amen.
Irene the Great
Named Penelope and born as a Persian princess in the fourth century, Irene the Great is a legendary figure credited with miracles that astonish the modern reader. To keep her from hearing the gospel, her father (the pagan king Licinius) isolated her in a high tower like a Rapunzel of late antiquity, where she was watched over by thirteen young maidens and the statues of ninety-eight gods. She desperately objected to her seclusion and isolation from her mother and even the sunshine, but Licinius would not relent and sealed her in the tower with his signet ring until she was to marry. In spite of her father, an elderly tutor was hired to teach her. Servants hauled him up into the tower by an elaborate pulley system, and he spoke to her from behind a curtain and taught her about Jesus Christ.
When she reached marrying age, she received a series of signs from God delivered to the tower via an assortment of birds. Her tutor interpreted them as a call to virginity and as omens foreshadowing her suffering for her savior. Penelope was baptized and took the name Irene, which means peace. She initially failed to convert her parents, and like a righteously indignant teenager, destroyed all her father’s idols. As punishment, he threw her under wild horses to be trampled to death, but the horses did not stomp on her and instead attacked Licinius, gravely injuring him. Irene prayed for her father and he was healed in the presence of eyewitnesses, leading to the conversion of her parents and three thousand others.
Later, she refused the governor’s order to cease preaching, and he threw her into a pit of vipers. She remained unharmed for ten days, fed and guarded by an angel until her release. Her life of preaching and miracle-working continued, and thousands more people converted to Christianity.
In 330 the Persian King Sapor II had her arrested, beheaded, and buried. Remarkably, even for a woman who survived a pit of vipers, God resurrected her, and she continued teaching all the way to Ephesus, converting thousands more to the Christian faith! Finally, at divine bidding, she found an unused tomb, made the sign of the cross, and was sealed inside. When her friends returned four days later, the tomb was reportedly empty.
Ironically, those wishing to land a quick and happy marriage are encouraged to pray to Saint Irene, despite her role in history as a virgin and martyr saint. In Greece, she is also the patron saint of policemen.
Collect for Irene the Great
Jesus, you raised up your servant Irene the Great and set her before us as an example of deep thirst for faith and a hunger for righteousness. May we have the discerning spirit to seek more of you, disregarding the detours and damage the enemy may place in our path toward you. Let us, like Irene, never be given over to anger or malice, but continually pray for those who do not know you, never letting violence or intractability steal away the peace and consolation you give us with yourself. Amen.
Vote!
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214 comments on “Dionysius the Great vs. Irene the Great”
In solidarity with the latest Christian martyrs of Syria and Iraq and North Africa I call upon Irene for her intercession.
Come on Irene!
My brain said Dionysus. for all the practical and reconcilable reasons, but living through all the horses and vipers, tests, etc. gave my heart to a woman of little fear and very deep faith!
I voted for Dionysus, who reminds me a bit of my favorite living saint, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the end of apartheid in South Africa. What both men have in common is not only their advocacy of reconciliation but their recognition that such reconciliation may require institutional, not just personal, solutions.
Let's get real. With one resurrection already does the empty tomb she had herself sealed in mean there was a subsequent assumption? It seems far more credible that Dionysius did exist and that he really did many of the things attributed to him.
I had to ultimately go with Irene, but this was a really tough choice. I admire Dionysius for being the champion of reconciliation, but Irene went through a lot, I mean, really, thundering herd of horses? Pit of vipers? That gal's tough! Although it might be a slightly "Disneyesque" story, her perseverance won my vote.
Irene is impressive, but I go with Dionysus, who found a way to welcome back those who had drifted away from--or just plain rebelled against--the Christian family.
According to Lent Madness's bio of Dionysus the Great, "Dionysius. . . offered a way toward reconciliation. He said that after a period of penance and re-baptism, those who had succumbed to pressure would be welcomed back into the Church." These comments about requiring re-baptism of apostates have been off-putting to a number of voters today; some have even decided to vote for Irene instead because of this. But when I read the entry on Dionysus in the online Encyclopedia Britannica, it seemed to say something quite different: "On his return to Alexandria in about 260, Dionysius favoured readmitting penitent apostates to the church in opposition to those who wanted to exclude them permanently. Engaged in the bitter controversy over baptism performed by heretics, Dionysius did not insist on rebaptizing converts who had received heretical baptism, but he recognized the right of communities to rebaptize if they preferred." [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/164246/Saint-Dionysius-of-Alexandria] In other words, Dionysus did NOT include re-baptism as a condition for apostates to be reconciled to the Church, as today's Lent Madness bio seems to claim. So, SEC, which is it?
isn't the qualifying part there the baptism by heretics?
Happy to be here . . . proud to be on the winning team this time. Rare for me. The stern visage of the Dionysius portrait reminds me of Barbara Walter's famous line, "I am not a smiley kind of person."
Sometimes I look at comments before voting and sometimes I go with my first inclination. That's today and I voted for Dionysius for his reconciliation work. But reading the comments gave me a better understanding for Irene. Thank you Barbara for the comparison to Malala.
Dionysus had the courage to allow reconciliation with those who wandered off. He got my vote for addressing, with kindness and understanding, a dilemna that continues today
Irene's story is "nice," and I mean nice in a snarky way. I agree with Kathy's comments about reaffirmation for those who were too scared to admit to being Christian during questionable times. Certainly baptism is a "for life" kind of thing. Still, I'm voting for Dionysius.
Another difficult choice. I have to side with the innovative way of reconciliation. Re-Baptism. It would have been so easy to draw those hard lines we so often see today and exclude rather than a sincere, and loving invitation to come back into the fold.
We certainly need reconciliation in today's world, especially when quasi Muslims are running amok and spreading terror at will. We desperately need God to find us another Dionysius! And for us, the collective will to listen, understand, inwardly digest and act on the Message.
C.R.
Voted for Irene, who is, at present, the underdog. But, good grief, what a woman! Am fascinated by and glad to be introduced to her story.
Irene all the way!! Irene is also my mother-n-laws name.
Nancy
I voted for Dionysius because I believe we all need to emulate him. We all need to be accepting of each others lapses, including our own, and accept all who join or rejoin our Faith or other Faiths whose tenets faithfully embody God's or their Higher Power's Truths.
This miserable offender's vote goes for Dionysius. One of the Proper Prefaces for Lent says that Jesus "was in every way tempted as we are, yet did not sin." I think the reference is to the Monothelite Controversy, in which the hero was Maximus the Confessor, but I sort of digress. If Jesus had not had a human will as well as a divine one, it would be so easy to say, "Easy for you not to sin, Jesus; you're the second Person of the Trinity." But we can't, because he was fully human as well as fully divine, and he didn't and we frequently do. And then what? So Dionysius the Sensible and Compassionate as well as Great gets my vote today.
I vote for Irene. Monty Pythons' s comment comes to mind, "I'm not dead yet." Sometimes we need to be. Bit less earnest.
I just can't seem to get over Dionysius' reaction to persecution of fleeing to the desert and hiding until it was all over. I'm sure that it was the prudent thing to do but prudence rarely begets sainthood. His collect should be "Not in the face! Not in the face!" My vote is for Irene.
My vote goes to Irene, the fourth century Energizer Bunny who kept going, and going, and going to spread her Christian faith.
I was all ready to vote for Irene as a mythologized memory of an influential woman in the early church. Then I read Dionysus' prayer, which is beautiful. The optional baptism seems like a way to welcome people back into the fold if they decided that they didn't want to be martyrs after all. I can identify with them. Sometimes we aren't as heroic as we'd like to be. God forgives, and so does Dionysus.
Very interesting. Disney should make the movie, Irene the Great. I'd go see it. I have a problem with the idea of rebaptism and have to thank the commentor who pointed out that Jewish tradition had no problem with the concept. Diyonysus it is.
I already voted but didn't have time to comment. Two wonderful people and when I read about Diyonysus I was sold....until I read about Irene....then I was conflicted. Although I suspect Irene had many of the same attributes as Diyonysus, his prayer and the second chance philosophy won me over.
Tough choice. Dionysius for his spirit of not just pursuing forgiveness, but going further with actions of reconciliation (which is even harder) that alleviated suffering on a massive scale, without material intervention.
Had to vote for Irene. Just had to -- no sound theological reason, no promptings by the Holy Spirit, no amount of reconciliation by Dionysius could sway me. I am a sucker for a feisty princess.
While "rebaptism" is troubling, I find myself drawn to a guy whose "forced migration" backfired and had to face the music as it were. Irene's steadfastness and radicalness is impressive, especially in relation to an abusive father, the threat of trampling horses, a pit of vipers, and an arranged marriage. Dionysius is far more real, and he faced longer lasting threats of persecution, plague, and hostile divisions in the church. I, too, believe the example of a saint who works to keep faith alive and advance the healing of division is more compelling, even if he is less perfect.
An endorsement by St. Basil is no small thing.
Patron saint for police... female... preacher... she gets my vote!
Miracles, people, miracles! By definition they are something that is difficult for us to comprehend and believe. I do believe in miracles (outside of hockey as well as there) and thus Irene gets my vote.