„He who asks seeks the truth. He who listens with patience finds salvation.”
He was born around the year 470 AD in Scythia Minor, which is our modern-day Dobrogea, near the Danube; that is why chroniclers call him „Dionysius the Scythian”. He was of Gothic descent, but with the heart of a Romanian and the faith of an Orthodox Christian. Being young and seeing the vanity of the world, he left his parental home and came to Rome, „the Old City”, not for bread, but for Christ. There, he was tonsured a monk and entered into obedience at a monastery. He was not talkative, nor was he an aspirant for high positions; that is why he gave himself the name „Exiguus”, „the Small, the Insignificant, the Worthless” and when he wrote, he would sign like this, „Dionysius, the small and unworthy monk”. His obedience was this: by day, he translated the Canons of the Holy Fathers and the Lives of the Saints from Greek into Latin, so that the Latins could also understand the order of the Eastern Church; by night, he kept vigil over the Psalms and copied manuscripts, so that the words of the Fathers would not be lost. Pope Gelasius, Pope Anastasius, and Pope Hormisdas honored him for his scholarly knowledge, but he fled from glory as from fire, saying: „I only know how to count the days and weep for my sins.” Because he was gentle and a lover of order, the Pope called him to a great obedience: „Brother Dionysius, make us new tables for Pascha, because the old ones based on Diocletian are no longer good, and the Latins are going astray during the feast.” And he, with fear, accepted. For 7 years, he worked on the „95-year Paschal Cycle”. He fell asleep in the Lord around the year 550, at a very advanced age, in peace and poverty, just as he had lived. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on September 1st, at the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, because he set a new beginning for the counting of years, shifting the center from the persecutor to Christ; some also commemorate him on November 21st. The hymns call him: „Model of humility, reformer of times, honor of Scythia, and praise of Rome”.
HOW HE CALCULATED THE YEARS
My son, he did not study astronomy like the Greeks, but he calculated with Christ in mind, and here is his method:
Step 1: He discarded „Anno Diocletiani”. Until his time, everyone counted „the year 241 since Diocletian”, but Diocletian was a persecutor. In the period 303–311, he issued 4 edicts, burned the Scriptures, and killed thousands of martyrs. And the elder said with tears: „How can I record the date in the registry after the one who shed the blood of saints? It is a blasphemy; it is like counting the years after Herod, the one who killed the infants.”
Step 2: He searched for the „Year of the Incarnation”. He took the Gospel according to Luke: „Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age” Luke 3:23. He took the chronicles of Eusebius of Caesarea, which linked the years of the Roman emperors with the years of Christ’s reign. He took the Canons of Nicaea (325), which stated when Pascha falls, and calculated backward. If Christ suffered around the years 29–30 and began His preaching at 30 years of age, then His birth was around the year 1. He erred by 4 to 6 years compared to today’s calculations, today we know that Herod the Great died in the year 4 BC, but he did not err in spirit; he wanted to make Year 1 equal to Christ, not to Diocletian.
Step 3: He made the tables: He wrote the „Tables of Dionysian Paschal Cycles” for 95 years, starting with „the year 532 from Christ”, and above it, he wrote in large letters: „Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi”, „In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ”. This is how the abbreviation AD, which you write today, was born: 2026 AD = 2026 from the Lord. He did not say „I know the exact day of His birth”, but he said „let us place Christ at the center, so that we no longer mention the persecutor.” For „Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” — Hebrews 13:8.
GRADUAL ACCEPTANCE
My son, the truth moves slowly, like the oil in a vigil lamp; it did not catch fire from the very first day. Here is how it happened:
6th–7th Century (Rome and Scythia): At first, the Romans accepted it because the Pope had ordered it, and the monasteries were copying his tables. However, in Spain and Gaul, people were still writing „after Diocletian”.
8th Century (Bede the Venerable): In the year 731, the English monk Bede, a learned man, wrote the „Ecclesiastical History of the English People”, and he used Dionysius’s „Anno Domini” throughout the entire book. Through him, this dating method took wing across all of England.
9th–10th Century (Charlemagne): The Emperor of the Franks, Charlemagne, ordered his chancelleries to write official documents using „AD”. From the emperor to the people, that is how order is established.
11th–15th Century (All of Europe): Slowly but surely, Venice, Florence, Germany, and Poland abandoned „after Diocletian” and wrote „from Christ”. However, Russia and the Romanian Principalities kept „Anno Mundi 5508” until much later—until Peter the Great in 1700—because we counted from the Creation of the World, according to the Septuagint.
Today, my son, the whole world, both Christian and pagan, writes 2026. This is not because everyone believes in Christ, but because a humble elder shifted the axis of history, and thus the word was fulfilled: „And from Me laws will go forth, and My judgment will be a light to the nations” — Isaiah 51:4.
Abba Dorotheos said: „It is not the greatness of the deed that is weighed by God, but the greatness of humility.” Saint Dionysius the Little changed how the world counts millennia; that is why we celebrate him on September 1st, at the beginning of the year, to remind ourselves that every beginning is made with Christ, not with fear. Today, 7534 from the creation — 2026. Amen.
Pustia Inimii 