In the 3rd century AD, a horrible plague struck the Roman Empire. According to some counts, 5,000 people a day were dying in Rome. It is not clear what specific disease caused the pandemic, but it is clear it was severe and deadly, lasting not months but years. By the mid-200s AD, when this plague struck, Christianity had grown substantially. In fact, it is largely thanks to Christian accounts of the plague that we know how events unfolded during the pandemic. But these Christian accounts also shed valuable light on how the church responded. Among those who wrote about the plague was a bishop by the name of Dionysius. Here…
