He Never Stopped Preaching

Everybody knows a guy who just won’t shut up. Sometimes it’s not even that he has something to say, or that he likes the sound of his own voice. Sometimes these are the folks who are genuinely frightened by silence.

Sometimes, they just don’t know how not to talk.

If those folks had a patron saint, it would no doubt be Saint Denis of Paris.

An Italian missionary bishop, he was sent by Pope Fabian (236-250) to Gaul, where the local Christians had been horribly persecuted by the governor, acting under the orders of the Emperor Decius.

The Christian church there was all but eradicated when Bishop Denis, together with his companions the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius, arrived in what today is the city of Paris and settled on the island in the Seine. There they built a small church, celebrated Mass, and preached the Gospel.

His fearless and indefatigable preaching of the Gospel led to countless conversions. This aroused the envy, anger and hatred of the heathen priests. They incited the populace against the strangers and importuned the governor Fescenninus Sisinnius to put a stop by force to the new teaching.

Denis with his two companions were seized and as they persevered in their faith were beheaded (in about the year 275) after many tortures.

(Catholic Encyclopedia)

And yet, he never stopped preaching the Gospel. The story goes that after he was beheaded, Bishop Denis picked up his head and continued preaching, walking about 10km into the countryside before finally finishing his sermon and dropping dead.

I can only imagine the effect this might have had on the locals. Certainly Gaul became Christian, and the “most Catholic” kingdom of France persisted until the Revolution.

This image of the saint can now be found in stone on the facade of the church of Notre Dame in Paris, on the same island on which Denis and his companions settled, some 1700 years ago.

(this article is a reprint from this day in 2012)