Apollinare

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Saint Apollainare
Saint Apollinare portrait mosaic at Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna
Born	, Antioch, Turkey
Died	, Ravenna, Italy
Venerated in	Roman Catholic
Feast	July 23 (US: July 20)
Attributes	Sword
Patronage	epilepsy; gout; Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) Aachen, Burtscheid, Düsseldorf, Ravenna, Remagen
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Saint Apollinare (also known as Apollinaris) is a Syrian Roman Catholic saint. He is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a disciple of Saint Peter the Apostle, but more probably lived in the 2nd-3rd centuries.

1 Biography
2 Veneration
3 Sources
4 External links

[edit] Biography

According to tradition, he was a native of Antioch in Syria. As the first bishop of Ravenna he faced nearly constant persecution. He and his flock were exiled from Ravenna during the 79 persecutions of Emperor Vespasian (or Nero, depending on the source). On his way out of the city he was identified, arrested as being the leader, tortured and martyred by being run through with a sword. Centuries after his death he appeared in a vision to Saint Romuald.

The early 20th century Catholic Encyclopaedia rendered the traditional version as follows:

He was made Bishop of Ravenna by St. Peter himself. The miracles he wrought there soon attracted official attention, for they and his preaching won many converts to the Faith, while at the same time bringing upon him the fury of the idolaters, who beat him cruelly and drove him from the city. He was found half dead on the seashore, and kept in concealment by the Christians, but was captured again and compelled to walk on burning coals and a second time expelled. But he remained in the vicinity, and continued his work of evangelization. We find him then journeying in the Roman province of Aemilia. A third time he returned to Ravenna. Again he was captured, hacked with knives, had scalding water poured over his wounds, was beaten in the mouth with stones because he persisted in preaching, and was flung into a horrible dungeon, loaded with chains, to starve to death; but after four days he was put on board ship and sent to Greece. There the same course of preachings, miracles and sufferings continued; and when his very presence caused the oracles to be silent, he was, after a cruel beating, sent back to Italy. All this continued for three years, and a fourth time he returned to Ravenna. By this time Vespasian was Emperor, and he, in answer to the complaints of the pagans, issued a decree of banishment against the Christians. Apollinaris was kept concealed for some time, but as he was passing out of the gates of the city, was set upon and savagely beaten, probably at Classis, a suburb, but he lived for seven days, foretelling meantime that the persecutions would increase, but that the Church would ultimately triumph. It is not certain what was his native place, though it was probably Antioch. Nor is it sure that he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, as has been suggested. The precise date of his consecration cannot be ascertained, but he was Bishop of Ravenna for twenty-six years.

The acts of the martyrdom of Saint Apollinare, however, have scarcely any historical value; they were probably written by archbishop Mauro of Ravenna (642-671), who presumably wanted, together with the alleged apostolic origin of the see of Ravenna, to abet his political aspirations against the influence of both Rome and Constantinople. However, Christian inscriptions dating from the second century have been discovered near Classe, confirming the presence of Christianity in Ravenna at a very early date. According to the list of the bishops of Ravenna compiled by bishop Marianus (546-556), the 12th Bishop of Ravenna was named Severus; and as he is among those who signed at the Council of Sardica in 343. Thus, the epoch of Saint Apollinaris may be estimated as possibly to the last decades of the second century, placing his martyrdom possibly under Septimius Severus.

[edit] Veneration

A noted miracle worker, he is considered especially effective against gout and epilepsy. His relics are at the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the Benedictine Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe, both in Ravenna and in Saint Lambert's church, Düsseldorf, Germany. There are also churches dedicated to him in Aachen, Burtscheid and Remagen in Germany, where his veneration was probably spred by Benedictine monks. The Frankish king Clovis built a church entitled to him in Dijon. A church dedicated to St. Apollinare also existed in Bologna, but was destroyed in 1250.