The works of an elusive, possibly Syrian mystic of the sixth century who wrote under the pseudonym Dionysius Areopagiticus, thus portraying himself as the first of Paul's Greek converts mentioned in Acts 17.34, were venerated in the early Greek Church as if they were in fact as sacred as the Acts of the Apostles themselves. The Byzantine emperor Michael the Stammerer presented a copy of these writings to Louis the Pious in 827. At that time, they were further confused with the writings of Saint Denis, patron of the Franks. Louis's court chaplain, Hilduin, set about translating them between 827 and 834. In his Passio Sanctissimi Dionysii, Hilduin recounts that Dionysius became bishop of Athens and then travelled to France, where he became bishop of Paris and was later martyred. Hilduin's literal rendering was a reasonable attempt to translate a difficult text, but it seems not to have had any impact on the Carolingian intellectual tradition of the 830s and 840s.

Charles the Bald asked Eriugena to undertake a new translation, which Eriugena did in the years 860–2, making use of Hilduin's first attempt as well as the one manuscript (Graecus 437) of Dionysius which Louis had acquired and which today survives in Paris. In the epistolary dedication to this translation, the author signs himself “Eriugena,” while singing the praises of Charles. Presumably Charles had protected him during his theological controversies and condemnations.