Who was Saint Denys?
Saint Denys and St Denys Southampton.
The Life of Saint Denys
Denys was born in Italy early in the 3rd century, probably about 210 AD. Nothing is definitely known
about the date or place of his birth, or his early life.
He became a priest and in 245 Fabian, the Bishop of Rome, consecrated him and six others as
missionary bishops to work in Gaul (France) where many Christians had suffered terribly during
the persecutions set in motion by the Roman Emperor Decius.
Denys arrived in Paris as its first bishop with two companions, the priest Rusticus and the
deacon Eleutherius. They settled on an island in the Seine and built a church there.
From there they went out preaching the gospel. The local pagan leaders incited the people
to force the Roman governor, Fescenninus, to stop their teaching. When Denys and his companions
refused to stop, they were seized, tortured and beheaded on the hill of martyrs' Montmartre on
October 9th 258.
Statue of Saint Denys at Notre Dame
The Veneration of Saint Denys
A legend says that after martyrdom Denys carried his head the six miles to the place where he was
to be buried - but we don't have to believe that!
A pious Christian woman, Catulla, buried them on the site of the present Basilica of St Denys in
northern Paris and built a small shrine on the site. Later a Benedictine monastery was established there.
In 475 Genevieve built a chapel on the spot on Montmartre where the three were executed.
By the 7th century the veneration of St Denys had become more and more a national devotion.
Early in the 12th century the Benedictine abbot Suger oversaw the construction of the basilica on
the site of St Denys' grave. It was the world's first Gothic cathedral and was the inspiration for
Chartres cathedral.
Almost every French king was laid to rest there, though all their graves were looted in the French
Revolution.
St Denys Priory
In memory of his son, Prince William, who drowned in the "White Ship" in the English Channel in 1120,
King Henry I of England established a priory in Southampton in 1124. The Priory of St Denys was an
Augustinian priory staffed by Canons Regular, that is, not by monks but by priests who lived in
community under a Rule of Life (regula) but worked in the local community. Some took care of the
church at Chilworth which, because of the link with the Priory, was dedicated to St Denys in 1224.
To the Present Day
By the 16th century all that remained of the priory was one ruined wall in what is now Priory Road.
An archway from the priory was rescued and put in Southampton's Tudor House Museum garden,
and tiles from the priory were incorporated in the wall of the Lady Chapel in St Denys' church.
The priory land was sold to builders in 1878, not long after the building of St Denys' church in 1868.
So the priory gave its name to the area of Southampton and when the church was built there the
dedication was to the saint of the priory.