Dionysius the Areopagite (/daɪəˈnɪsiəs/; Ancient Greek: Διονύσιος ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης Dionysios ho Areopagitēs) was an Athenian judge at the Areopagus Court in Athens, who lived in the first century.

As related in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 17:34), he was converted to Christianity by the preaching of Paul the Apostle,[2] being first stirred to Christian doctrine by Paul's sermon at the Areopagus: Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.After his conversion, Dionysius became the first Bishop of Athens,[3] though he is sometimes counted as the second after Hierotheus.

[5] A minority of scholars, including Romanian theologian Dumitru Stăniloae,[6] argue in favor of authenticity citing internal historical details and the existence of explicit citations of Dionysius predating Proclus by writers such as Dionysius of Alexandria and Gregory Nazianzus.

[7] Even Proclus himself appears to cite an external authority for a euphemism ("flowers and supersubstantial lights") when the said verbiage is found explicitly in the Corpus Dionysiacum.

Dionysius is the patron saint of the Gargaliani of Messenia, as well as in the village of Dionysi in the south of the prefecture of Heraklion.