Dionysius the Little
Dionysius the Little
(died c.544 ) Monk and writer. Much of his life was spent in Rome, where he was abbot of a monastery . He translated standard works from Greek into Latin and the beginnings of canon law in Western Christendom are due to him. In a work on the calculation of Easter he introduced the use of the Christian Era fixing the date of Our Lord’s birth as 753 years after the foundation of Rome, a date now known to be too late by four to seven years. His surname, “the Little,” is believed to have been adopted in self-depreciation.