DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, often surnamed 'the Great,' was the greatest pupil of Origen, succeeded Heraclas as head of the Catechists' school in 232, became Bishop of Alexandria in 247, was banished during the persecutions of Decius (250) and Valerian (257), and died in 264.
He distinguished himself by his wisdom and moderation in the great church controversies of his time, on the Novatian schism, on the baptism of heretics, on Chiliasm, and on the heresies of the Sabellians and Paul of Samosata. He was distinguished also as an exegete; the Apocalypse he refused to assign to the Apostle John on grounds which show that he possessed the critical faculty as well as an independent mind. Of his numerous writings only a few fragments remain; these were collected by Routh in vols. i. and iv. of his Reliquiae Sacrae (Oxford, 1814), and in vol. x. of Maï's Auctores Classici (Rome, 1838). See Dittrich, Dionysius der Grosse (1867), and Morize, Denis d'Alexandrie (1881).