Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite , also known as
Pseudo-Denys, was a Christian
theologian and
philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century (writing before 532), probably Syrian, the author of the set of works commonly referred to as the
Corpus Areopagiticum or
Corpus Dionysiacum. The author pseudonymously identifies himself in the corpus as "Dionysios", portraying himself as the figure of
Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian convert of
St. Paul mentioned in . This false attribution to the earliest decades of Christianity resulted in the work being given great authority in subsequent theological writing in both East and West, with its influence only decreasing in the West with the fifteenth century demonstration of its later dating.