Apollinaris of Ravenna

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Saint Apollinaris
Syria (now Antakya, modern-day Turkey)
DiedRavenna, Italy
Venerated inCatholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church
FeastJuly 20 (in Roman Rite of Catholic Church)
July 23 (pre-1969 General Roman Calendars, Eastern Orthodox Church)
AttributesSword
Patronageepilepsy; gout;
Emilia-Romagna region (Italy)
Aachen, Burtscheid, Düsseldorf, Ravenna, Remagen

Apollinaris of Ravenna (Italian: Apollinare; Greek: Ἀπολλινάριος, Apollinarios, Late Latin: Apolenaris) is a Syrian saint, whom the Roman Martyrology describes as "a bishop who, according to tradition, while spreading among the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ, led his flock as a good shepherd and honoured the Church of Classis near Ravenna by a glorious martyrdom."[1]

Biography

It is not certain what was his native place, though it was probably

Roman province of Syria. It is not certain that he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, as has been suggested, but he was apparently a disciple of Saint Peter, who may have consecrated and commissioned him as the first Bishop of Ravenna during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, the fourth Roman emperor from 41 to 54 A.D. The precise date of his consecration as Bishop cannot be ascertained. He dedicated himself to the work of evangelization in Emilia-Romagna.[2]
During his twenty-six year tenure as bishop of Ravenna, he faced nearly constant persecution.

Christian inscriptions dating from the 2nd century have been discovered near

Council of Sardica in 343. Thus, the epoch of Saint Apollinaris may be estimated as possibly to the last decades of the 2nd century, placing his martyrdom possibly under Emperor Septimius Severus
.

The Passio Sancti Apollinaris presents historical difficulties. It was probably written by Archbishop Maurus of Ravenna (642-671), who presumably wanted to demonstrate the early origin of his see and a connection to Saint Peter, in an effort to achieve a degree of autonomy from Rome.[3] (In 666 Emperor Constans II granted the request of Bishop Maurus, allowing Ravenna to consecrate its bishop without approval from Rome, and declared that the Pope had no jurisdiction over the Archbishop of Ravenna, since that city was the seat of the exarch, his immediate representative.)

Traditional narrative

The miracles Apollinaris wrought 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.[4]

He then journeyed to Aemilia. A third time he returned to Ravenna. Again he was captured, beaten and tortured, and flung into a dungeon, loaded with chains, to starve to death; but after four days he was put on board a 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.[4]

All this continued for three years, and a fourth time he returned to Ravenna. By this time

Classis, a suburb, but he lived for seven days, foretelling meantime that the persecutions would increase, but that the Church would ultimately triumph.[4]

Apollinaris depicted on a quattrino from Ravenna

Veneration

His movement quickly spread beyond the city limits. Popes Simmachus (498-514) and Honorius I (625-638) encouraged its spread to Rome, while the Frankish king Clovis dedicated a church to Apollinaris near Dijon. In Germany it probably spread thanks to the Benedictine and Camaldolese monasteries. A church was also dedicated to him in Bologna in the area of the Palazzo del Podestà, but was demolished in 1250.[2]

Feast day

In the

Double. The present General Roman Calendar devotes this day to Saint Bridget of Sweden, since it is also the day she died and she is now better known in the West than Saint Apollinaris, being one of the patron saints of Europe. Owing to the limited importance of Saint Apollinaris' feast worldwide, his liturgical celebration was in 1969 removed from the General Roman Calendar, but not from the Roman Martyrology, the official list of saints.[5] His memorial was restored to the General Roman Calendar in the 2002 edition of the Roman Missal, with the date of celebration changed to July 20, the nearest day not taken up with other celebrations. The Roman Martyrology mentions Saint Apollinaris both on July 20 (with the above-quoted text) and also more briefly[a] on July 23.[1]

Relics

Apollinaris-Reliquiar in Remagen

His relics were held at the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, on the traditional site of his martyrdom. In 856, they were transferred to the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna[6] because of the threat posed by frequent pirate raids along the Adriatic coast. There are also relics of Apollinaris at (St. Lambertus (Düsseldorf) [de]).[7] Additional relics are housed at the Apollinariskirche, Remagen.

There are churches dedicated to him in

collegiate chapter dedicated to Saint Apollinaris in Sadská (then an important centre of the Czech state) in 1117/1118. On behalf of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, the chapter was later transferred from Sadská to recently founded New Town of Prague in 1362 and another church of St Apollinaris built there. Both of these churches in Bohemia
stand to the present time. In 1957, a church venerating St. Apollinaris was founded in Napa, California.

Ordination of Apollinaris, Troyes Cathedral

Patronage

Apollinaris is the patron saint of Ravenna, and Emilia-Romagna. He is also the patron saint of

venereal disease[8] and epilepsy
.

Iconography

Saint Apollinarus is represented with a pastoral staff, palm, and pallium.[2] The story of Saint Apollinaris is told in stained glass in the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Troyes.[9]

  • Sant'Apollinare in Classe
    Sant'Apollinare in Classe
  • Sant'.Apollinare.Nuovo, Ravenna
    Sant'.Apollinare.Nuovo, Ravenna
  • Apollinariskirche Remagen
    Apollinariskirche Remagen
  • Church of S. Apollinaris, Sadská, Czech Republic
    Church of S. Apollinaris, Sadská, Czech Republic
  • Church of S. Apollinaris, Prague
    Church of S. Apollinaris, Prague

Notes

  1. ^ "At Classis, near Ravenna in Flaminia, the martyrdom of Saint Apollinaris, bishop, whose memorial is celebrated on 20 July."

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 88-209-7210-7
    )
  2. ^ a b c Arduino, Fabio. " Sant' Apollinare di Ravenna Vescovo e martire", Santi e Beati, April 24, 2006
  3. ^ Duffy, Patrick "St Apollinaris (1st or 2nd century) bishop", Catholic Ireland, 20 July, 2012
  4. ^ a b c Campbell, Thomas Joseph (1907). "St. Apollinaris (1)" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  5. ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 131
  6. ^ "Apollinaris of Ravenna", Saints Resource, BCL Benziger
  7. ISBN 3770011201
    , S. 17–18
  8. ^ "Popular Saints – Saints & Angels".
  9. ^ Stracke, Edward. "Apollinaris in Art", Christian Iconography

Sources

  • Nicholas Everett, Patron Saints of Early Medieval Italy AD c.350-800 (PIMS/Durham University Press, 2016), pp.139–170.
  • Ælfric of Eynsham (1881). "Of Saint Apollinaris" . Ælfric's Lives of Saints. London, Pub. for the Early English text society, by N. Trübner & co.

External links

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