All about Zakynthos

Saint Dionysius was born in 1547. His secular name was Draganigos Siguros. In 1568 he became a monk with the name Daniel. Two years later he became Abbot of Anafonitra and Strophades. In 1576 he became Archbishop of Aegina, Hydra and Poros and took the name Dionysios. After two years, in 1578 he resigned from his metropolis and returned to Zakynthos. In 1580 he forgave his brother's murderer in the monastery of Anafonitria.In 1581 he was appointed Chorobishop and President of Zakynthos, and in 1583 he became parish priest at Agios Nikolaos of Molos. He was buried on 17 December 1622 in the town of Zakynthos. He was recognized as a saint in 1703 by Patriarch Gabriel of Constantinople.

The relic of Agios Dionysios was transferred from Strophadia to Zakynthos on 24 August 1717 and placed in the church of Panagia in the suburb of Kaliteros (a part of the monastery of Strophadon) and after three years in the homonymous church of Ammos. Until 1724 Zakynthos had Agios Ioannis the Baptist as its patron saint. In that year the Community of Zakynthos proclaimed the miraculous Saint Dionysios as its Patron Saint. The church and the adjacent monastery house admirable works of art, oil paintings, wood carvings and silver sculptures. Particularly impressive is the silver-carved urn, the work of George Diamanti Bafa (1829), which depicts the saint's burial.