Fra Angelico, The Crucifixion: Detail, Dionysus the Areopagite

1441-43
Fresco
Convent of San Marco, Florence

The banderole reads deus nature patitur. For October 9, the feast of St. Dionysus, the Roman Breviary (1064) says that when the sun ceased to shine on the day of Christ's death (Matthew 27:14), Dionysus in Athens exclaimed, Aut Deus naturæ patitur, aut mundi machina dissolvetur, "Either the God of nature is suffering, or the fabric of the world is being dissolved." Though not strictly speaking a prophet like the others pictured in the fresco's border, he nonetheless perceived that God (Jesus Christ) must be suffering. In Acts 17:34, this Dionysus is among those who heard St. Paul's discourse in Athens at the Areopagus and became a follower. In the Middle Ages he was identified with the Dionysus who was martryed first bishop of Paris.

View the entire fresco.
Read more about Dionysus.

Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.