On Dionysius the Areopagite and the Writings Supposedly Attributed to Him Against Gottfried Arnold

They say that when he was applying himself to studies at Heliopolis in Egypt, he exclaimed at that marvelous solar eclipse which obscured the entire world at the time of Christ’s Passion: " ἢ τὸ θεῖον πάσχει, ἢ τῷ πάσχοντι συμπάσχει," Either God is suffering, or He sympathizes with one who suffers. They also wish for him to have been present, along with Timothy and Hierotheus, at the assembly of the Apostles when they performed the rites for the deceased Mary. That fabrication was once discussed in his own manner—that is, most learnedly and solidly—in the Leipzig Academy by our most Reverend Father in Christ, a Theologian long since most consummate for his immortal merits toward the true Church of Jesus Christ, to whom we profess ourselves bound by a grateful mind and hand for the countless benefits bestowed upon us for many years now, the Magnificent Dr. JO. FRID. MAYER, in his Dissertation on the Assembly of the Apostles at the Death of Mary. It is probable that he obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom under the Emperor Domitian, in 95 or 96 A.D., although there is no certain agreement among writers regarding this. See concerning these things and others pertaining to his fate the writers of the life of Dionysius the Areopagite, Hilduin, by Matth. Galenus (Cologne, 1563).