The monk Dionysius Exiguus, a member of…
525 CE
The monk Dionysius Exiguus, a member of the the Scythian monks community concentrated in Tomis, the major city of Scythia Minor, had collected thirty-eight papal decretals that, along with his Latin translation of canons, become widely circulated in western Europe.
A quarter-century later, he suggests that years be counted from the birth of Christ, which he designates AD (anno Domini, "the year of the Lord") 1.
He used it to identify the several Easters in his Easter table, but did not use it to date any historical event.
When he devised his table, Julian calendar years were identified by naming the consuls who held office that year — he himself stated that the "present year" was "the consulship of Probus Junior", which he also stated was five hundred and twenty-five years "since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ".
How he arrived at that number is unknown but there is evidence of the system he applied.
He invented a new system of numbering years to replace the Diocletian years that had been used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians.
The Anno Domini era will become dominant in Western Europe only after it is used by the Venerable Bede to date the events in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731.
People
Groups
Subjects
Regions
Southeast Europe
View →Subregions
