The PriestMartyr Apollinarius, Bishop of Ravenna:
Commemorated on July 23
The PriestMartyr
Apollinarius, Bishop of Ravenna: During the reign of the Roman emperor
Claudius (41-54), the holy Apostle Peter came to Rome from Antioch, and he
ordained the Antiochene Apollinarius, who had come with him, to be bishop of
Ravenna. Arriving in Ravenna as a stranger, Saint Apollinarius asked shelter of
a local inhabitant, the soldier Ireneius, and in conversation with him revealed
also for what purpose he had come. Ireneius had a blind son, whom Saint
Apollinarius healed, having turned to the Lord with prayer. The soldier
Ireneius and his family were the first in Ravenna to believe in Christ. The
saint stayed at the house of Ireneius and preached about Christ to everyone
wanting to hear what he said. One of the miracles of healing, done by Saint
Apollinarius, was the healing of the incurably sick wife of the Ravenna
tribune, Thecla. After she stood up from her bed completely healthy – through
the prayers of the saint, not only did she believe in Christ, but so also did
the tribune. At the house of the tribune Saint Apollinarius constructed a small
church, where he made Divine Liturgy. For the newly-baptised people of Ravenna
Saint Apollinarius ordained two presbyters – Aderetus and Calocyrus, and also
two deacons.
Saint Apollinarius
preached the Gospel at Ravenna for twelve years, and the number of Christians
steadily increased. Pagan priests made complaint against the bishop to the
governor Saturninus. Saint Apollinarius was brought to trial and subjected to
grievous tortures. Thinking that he had died, the torturers took him out of the
city to the sea-coast and threw him in. But the saint was alive. A certain
pious Christian widow rendered him aid and gave him shelter in her home. Saint
Apollinarius stayed at her home for six months and continued secretly to preach
about Christ. The whereabouts of the saint became known, when he healed the
loss of speech of an illustrious resident of the city named Boniface, at the
request of his wife, who besought the help of the saint for her husband. After
this miracle many pagans were converted to Christ, and they again brought Saint
Apollinarius to trial and tortured him, setting his bared-feet on red-hot
coals. They removed him from the city a second time, but the Lord again kept
him alive. The saint did not cease preaching until they expelled him from the
city. For a certain while Saint Apollinarius found himself elsewhere in Italy,
where as before he continued to preach the Gospel. And again having returned to
Ravenna to his flock, Saint Apollinarius again went on trial and was sentenced
to banishment. In heavy fetters he was put on a ship sailing to Illyrica to the
River Dunaj-Danube. Two soldiers were responsible to convey him to his place of
exile. Three of the clergy voluntarily followed their bishop into exile. Along
the way the vessel suffered shipwreck and all drowned, except for the rescued
Saint Apollinarius, his acompanying clergy and the two soldiers. The soldiers,
listening to Saint Apollinarius, believed in the Lord and accepted Baptism.
Nowhere having found shelter, the travellers came to Mycea, where Saint
Apollinarius healed a certain illustrious inhabitant from leprosy, and for
which both he and his companions received shelter at his home. In this land
Saint Apollinarius likewise preached tirelessly about Christ and he converted
many of the pagans to Christianity, for which he was subjected to persecution
on the part of unbelievers. They beat up the saint mercilessly, and boarding
him on a ship sailing for Italy, they sent him back. After a three year
absence, Saint Apollinarius returned to Ravenna and was joyfully received by his
flock. The pagans, however, having fallen upon the church where the saint made
Divine Liturgy, scattered those at prayer, and dragged the saint to the
idolatrous priests in the pagan temple of Apollo, where the idol fell just as
they brought in the saint, and it shattered. The pagan priests brought Saint
Apollinarius for trial to the new governor of the district, named Taurus.
Apollinarius worked here a new miracle – he healed the son of the governor,
who had been blind from birth. In gratitude for the healing of his son, Taurus
strove to shelter Saint Apollinarius from the angry crowd. He dispatched him to
his own estate outside the city, where the son and wife of Taurus were
baptised, but he himself fearing the anger of the emperor did not accept Baptism,
but conducted himself with gratitude and love towards his benefactor. Saint
Apollinarius lived for five years at the estate of Taurus and preached without
hindrance about salvation. During this time pagan priests dispatched letters of
denunciation to the emperor Vespasian with a request for a sentence of death or
exile of the Christian "sorcerer" Apollinarius. But the emperor
answered the pagan priests, that the gods were sufficiently powerful to take
revenge for themselves, if they reckoned themselves insulted. All the wrath of
the pagans fell upon Saint Apollinarius: they caught hold of him when the saint
left the city setting out for a nearby settlement, and they beat him fiercely.
Christians found him barely alive and took him to the settlement, where he
survived for seven days. During the time of his pre-death illness the saint did
not cease to teach his flock and he predicted, that after persecution
Christians would enter upon better times, when they could openly and freely
confess their faith. Having given those present his archpastoral blessing, the
PriestMartyr Apollinarius expired to the Lord. Saint Apollinarius was bishop of
Ravenna for 28 years and he died in the year 75.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.