Fragmenta

From the beginning, this has been your custom: to benefit all brothers in various ways, and to send provisions to many churches in every city—here relieving the poverty of those in need, there supplying brothers who are in the mines. Through the provisions you have sent from the start, you Romans preserve a custom handed down from your fathers, which your blessed bishop Soter has not only maintained but also increased, both by supplying the bounty sent to the saints and by encouraging the brothers who come up with blessed words, like a loving father his children. In this same letter he also mentions the letter of Clement to the Corinthians, indicating that from ancient custom its reading has been done in the church from the beginning. For he says: "We therefore passed the holy day of the Lord, on which we read your letter, which we will always have, reading it to be admonished, just as the earlier one written to us through Clement." And you, through such great admonition, have blended together the planting that came from Peter and Paul for both Romans and Corinthians. For both, having planted us in our Corinth, taught us alike; and likewise, having taught together in Italy, they were martyred at the same time. The same author also, concerning his own letters...

as if they had been tampered with. He says this: For when brothers asked me to write letters, I wrote them. And these the apostles of the devil have filled with tares, removing some things and adding others, for whom the woe is appointed. It is not surprising, then, that some have attempted to tamper even with the Lord's own writings, since they have also attacked those that are not of such a kind. But let us set these matters aside. And first we must speak concerning Dionysius: that he was entrusted with the throne of the episcopate of the parish in Corinth, and that he shared abundantly of his inspired industry not only with those under him but also with those in foreign lands, making himself most useful to all in the catholic letters he composed to the churches. Among these is the one to the Lacedaemonians, catechetical in orthodoxy and hortatory of peace and unity. And the one to the Athenians, stirring up faith and life according to the gospel, whose neglect he rebukes, as if they had come very near to falling away from the word, from which their leader Publius happened to have been martyred in the persecutions of that time. And he mentions Quadratus, who became their bishop after the martyr Publius, testifying that through his zeal they were gathered together and received a revival of faith. And he further indicates that Dionysius the Areopagite, having been urged to the faith by the apostle Paul as is shown in the Acts, was the first to be entrusted with the episcopate of the parish in Athens.

Another letter of his, To the Nicomedians, is extant, in which, while combating the heresy of Marcion, he stands by the canon of truth. And to the church sojourning in Gortyna, together with the other parishes throughout Crete, he wrote, commending their bishop Philip, since the church under him is attested for very many deeds of manly virtue; and he reminds them to beware of the distortion of the heretics. And to the church sojourning in Amastris, together with those throughout Pontus, he wrote, mentioning Bacchylides and Elpistus as having urged him to write; and he sets forth interpretations of the divine scriptures; indicating their bishop by name, Palmas; and he gives them much advice concerning marriage and chastity. And he commands that those returning from any kind of fall, whether from misconduct or indeed from heretical error, be received graciously. With these is included another letter, To the Cnossians, in which he exhorts Pinythus, the bishop of the parish, not to impose a heavy and compulsory burden concerning chastity upon the brethren, but to have regard for the weakness of the many. – And there is also another letter of Dionysius, besides these, which he wrote to Chrysophora, a most faithful sister. Writing to her what was appropriate, he imparted to her also the fitting spiritual nourishment.