Hieromartyr Dionysius (Denis), Bishop of Paris and with him Martyrs Rusticus the Presbyter and Eleutherius the Deacon

Denis (Dionysius) was the first bishop of Paris. Gregory of Tours says that he was one of seven bishops sent from Rome to Gaul about the middle of the 3rd century. With him suffered the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius: the three were beheaded on the hill later called Montmartre, the “mount of the martyrs”.

Legend tells that Denis rose after his execution and walked away carrying his own head. The abbey of Saint-Denis, burial place of French kings, grew up over the martyrs' tomb. From the 9th century the West identified him with Dionysius the Areopagite, and the Roman Martyrology joins them; historians treat them as two different men.