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oyal family in France, whose encouragement of the cult of Dionysius (Denis, as he is
called in French) served to endorse a particular vision of order. St. Denis became the
patron saint of France around the seventh century, where his cult centred around the
Basilica of St. Denis, located in the eponymous town just north of Paris (now a suburb of
the city). The basilica and the abbey enjoyed the generous patronage of the French kings
for more than a thousand years: beginning with Dagobert in 639, most of the French
kings are buried in the crypt, 415 and the oriflamme, the sacred standard the French army
carried into battle, was given to the monastery for safe-keeping. 416
How a town near Paris came to be the shrine of a saint said to have come from
Athens (or, indeed, the shrine of a man who had not existed at all) is the result of
intensive myth-building by those in charge of his cult. 417 At the beginning stands a triple
case of mistaken identity, where the writings of the sixth century Greek/Syrian monk (for
whom Dionysius was only a pseudonym) were attributed to another Dionysius (a
missionary to Gaul martyred in Paris, who, for clarity’s sake, will be called Denis in this
chapter), both of whom were then identified with the Dionysius mentioned in the Bible
415 Thomas Waldman, "Denis," in Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, 557-559 (New York: Garland
Publishing, 1995), 558.
416 “A forked-tongue scarlet banner embroidered with golden flames, the Oriflamme was believed to have
originated as Charlemagne's standard; it represented a flaming lance with which he could save the Holy
Land from the Muslims. Hugh Capet later deposited it at the monastery of Saint-Denis, where it remained
largely unheralded until Louis VI used it as his royal standard in battle in 1124 against Henry I of England.
A century later, Louis IX received the Oriflamme from the abbot of Saint-Denis before going on his
crusades. Although traditionally to be unfurled only in the face of enemies of Christianity, by the 14th and
15th centuries the Oriflamme had become the military standard of the French kings...After 1418, the use of
the Oriflamme diminished, and it was returned to the monastery of Saint-Denis.” Kelly De Vries,
"Oriflamme," in Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, 1291 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995).
Alternately, the oriflamme was actually the abbey’s flag, which Louis VI “took from the altar and
“announced that the saint was the special protector of the realm,” and that the royal flag was identified with
the abbey’s standard. Thomas Waldman, "Denis," in Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, 556-559 (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1995), 558. At any rate, the abbey of St. Denis was seen as the guardian of
France’s continued military success.
417 The most helpful introduction to the history of Dionyius’s myth is David Luscombe, “Denis the Pseudo-
Areopagite in the Middle Ages from Hilduin to Lorenzo Valla”, Vol. 1, in Fälschungen im Mittelalter:
Internationaler Kongress der Monumenta Germaniae Historica, München, 16.-19. September 1986
(Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1988).
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