4. The _Chronicon Orientale_ assigns the reading of St. Paul's letters as
the cause of his conversion to Christianity, and proceeds to state how,
after their perusal, he presented himself for baptism to Demetrius, then
Bishop of Alexandria, who admitted him in due course. Whether this was
actually the cause of his conversion or not, we know from what he has
himself told us in his letter to Philemon (p. 56), that both before and
after baptism he was a diligent student of all that was written for and
against Christianity.
Was He Married or Not?
5. Whether, in accordance with the common practice of the Eastern Church
at that time, Dionysius was married or not, is a moot point. He addressed
his treatise {peri Physeôs} to one Timotheus {ho pais}, and we read of
{hoi paides} (of whom Timotheus was one) as accompanying him in his
flight (p. 44). One would naturally infer from this that he was then a
widower (his wife not being mentioned), and that these were his sons; but
they may have been his pupils, on the supposition that he was still
Catechete as well as Bishop, or, which is less likely, his servants.[2]