Abelard's high estimate of him is fully confirmed by other contemporary authorities.
ABBOT OF ST.

MEDARD This abbot was probably, though not certainly, Anselm of Soissons, who became a bishop in 1145.

The chronology, however, is confusing.
DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE The confusion regarding the identity of Dionysius the Areopagite persists to this day, at least to the extent that we do not know the real name of the fourth or fifth century writer who, under this pseudonym, exercised so profound an influence on medieval thought.
That he was not the bishop of either Athens or Corinth, nor yet the Dionysius who became the patron saint of France, is clear enough.
Of the actual Dionysius the Areopagite we know practically nothing.
He is mentioned in Acts, xvii, 34, as one of those Athenians who believed when they had heard Paul preach on Mars Hill.

A century or more later we learn from another Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, that Dionysius the Areopagite was the first bishop of Athens, a statement of doubtful value.

In the fourth or fifth century a Greek theological writer of extraordinary erudition assumed the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, and as his works exerted an enormous influence on later scholarship, it was quite natural that the personal legend of the real Dionysius should have been extended correspondingly.
The Hilduin referred to by Abelard, who was abbot of St.Denis from 814 to 840, was directly responsible for the extreme phase of this extension.