In his Life of Dionysius, found within his hagiographical collection The Lives of Saints, Ælfric of Eynsham notes that the saint ‘sende his geferan sume to Ispaniam’ (‘sent some of his companions to Spain’, l. 162).1 The link between Dionysius and Spain was clearly of particular interest to Ælfric, since he had already mentioned this connection in his Catholic Homilies: in his homily on St Clement, he adds a reference to Dionysius, stating that ‘he eac sume his geferan to Ispanian gesende þæt hi þan leodscipe lifes word gecyddon’ (‘he also sent some of his companions to Spain so that they might proclaim the word of life to that people’).2 Yet, as has been previously noted by Malcolm Godden, the text identified as Ælfric’s source for the Life, Hilduin’s Passio S. Dionysii (BHL 2175), contains no mention of Spain.3 This article argues...
