A PATRON SAINT OF PARIS AND OF FRANCE; AND OF HEADACHES

St Denis has popularly been regarded as a patron both of Paris and of France on the basis of the story of his mission and his martyrdom.
The medieval choice of St Denis as the saint to be invoked against headaches seems to have arisen from the story, recounted below, that his body walked from Montmartre carrying his head in its hands.

St Gregory of Tours, writing in the sixth century, tells us that St Denis, or St Dionysius, of Paris was born in Italy and sent in the year 250 with six other missionary bishops into Gaul, where he suffered martyrdom. The 'Martyrology of Jerome' mentions St Dionysius on 9 October, joining with him St Rusticus and St Eleutherius; later writers make of these the bishop's priest, and deacon, who with him penetrated to Lutetia Parisiorum and established Christian worship on an island in the Seine. Their preaching was so effective that they were arrested and, after a long imprisonment, all three were beheaded. The bodies of the martyrs were thrown into the Seine, from which they were rescued and given honourable burial. A chapel was later built over their tomb, around which arose the great abbey of Saint-Denis,

This monastery was founded by King Dagobert I (d. 638), and it is possible that a century or so later the identification of St Dionysius with Dionysius the Areopagite began to gain currency, or at least the idea that he was sent by Pope Clement I in the first century. But it was not everywhere or even widely accepted until the time of Hilduin, abbot of Saint-Denis. In the year 827 the Emperor Michael II sent as a present to the emperor of the West, Louis the Pious, copies of the writings ascribed to St Dionysius the Areopa-gite. By an unfortunate coincidence they arrived in Paris and were taken to Saint-Denis on the eve of the feast of the patron of the abbey. Hilduin translated them into Latin, and when some years later Louis asked him for a life of St Dionysius of Paris, the abbot produced a work which persuaded Christendom for the next seven hundred years that Dionysius of Paris, Dionysius of Athens, and the author of the 'Dionysian' writings were one and the same person. In his 'Areopagitica' Abbot Hilduin made use of spurious and worthless materials, and it is difficult to believe in his complete good faith: the life is a tissue of fables. The Areopagite comes to Rome where Pope St Clement I receives him and sends him to evangelize the Parisii. They try in vain to put him to death by wild beasts, fire and crucifixion; then, together with Rusticus and Eleutherius, he is successfully beheaded on Montmatre. The dead body of St Dionysius rose on its feet and, led by an angel, walked the two miles from Montmarte to where the abbey church of Saint-Denis now stands, carrying its head in its hands and surrounded by singing angels, and so was there buried. Of which marvel the Roman Breviary makes mention.