Stone & Incense Search
Start hereCurious, or no faithEvangelical, Pentecostal or ProtestantFrom another faithSomeone I love is CatholicBecoming CatholicI was Catholic once Today in the ChurchLibraryHard questionsVoices of the revivalTake the next stepAboutSources & methodSupport the site
The saints

St. Denis and Companions

The first bishop of Paris, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre.

Feast: 9 October · died about 258 · The early Church · Paris, Gaul

Read the story 1 min read
A plain typographic plate: St. Denis and Companions, with the feast day.

Typographic plate by Stone & Incense: we found no public-domain image of this saint we could verify.

Home / The saints / St. Denis and Companions

Montmartre, Paris

Denis was sent from Rome to Gaul as a missionary bishop in the third century.1

He made Paris his center and converted many.1

He and two companions, Rusticus and Eleutherius, were beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre, the mount of martyrs.

Patron of France1

01St. Denis and Companions

The legend

A later legend says he carried his head to where he wanted to be buried, which is why statues show him holding it.1

Live it this week

Visit the grave of a Christian you loved

Denis’s grave became the basilica of Saint-Denis. Visit a cemetery this week, pray at the grave of someone who taught you the faith, and thank God for them.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Denis and Companions”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.