Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
Denis, who by the mediaeval hagiographers is invariably confused with
Dionysius the Areopagite, and his companions, preached and taught the
new faith unceasingly and met martyrs' deaths. In the _Golden Legend_
he is famed to have converted much people to the faith, and "dyde do
make many churches, and at length was brought before the judge who
dyde do smyte off the hedes of the thre felawes by the temple of
Mercurye. And anone the body of Saynte Denys reysed hymselfe up and
bare his hede beetwene his armes, as the angels ladde hym two leghes
fro the place which is sayd the hille of the martyrs unto the place
where he now resteth by his election and the purveance of god. And
there was heard so grete and swete a melodye of angels that many that
herd it byleuyd in oure lorde."
The work that Denis and his companions began was more fully achieved
in the fourth century by the rude Pannonion soldier, St. Martin, who
also evangelised at Paris. He is the best-known of Gallic saints, and
the story of his conversion one of the most popular in Christendom.
When stationed at Amiens he was on duty one bitter cold day at the
city gate, and espied a poor naked beggar asking alms. Soldiers in
garrison are notoriously impecunious, and Martin had nothing to give;
but drawing his sword he cleaved his mantle in twain, and bestowed
half upon the shivering wretch at his feet. That very night the Lord
Jesus appeared to him in a dream surrounded by angels, having on His
shoulders the half of the cloak which Martin had given to the beggar.
Turning to the angels, Jesus said: "Know ye who hath thus arrayed Me?
My servant Martin, though yet unbaptised, hath done this." After this
vision Martin received baptism and remained steadfast in the faith.
The illiterate and dauntless soldier became the fiery apostle of the
faith, a vigorous iconoclast, throwing down the images of the false
gods, breaking their altars in pieces and burning their temples. Of
the Roman gods, Mercury, he said, was most difficult to ban, but Jove
was merely stupid[12] and brutish, and gave him least trouble.
[Footnote 12: "_Jovem brutum atque hebetem._"]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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