Hieromartyr Apollinaris, Bishop of Ravenna (+c. 75)
The Hieromartyr Apollinaris, Bishop of Ravenna, was by origin from Antioch. He was consecrated Bishop of Ravenna by the Apostle Paul in Rome, in the time of the Emperor Claudius (41–54).
The blessed one came to his diocese in the guise of a simple pilgrim and asked a local inhabitant, the soldier Irenaeus, for shelter. In conversation with his host the saint revealed his high spiritual rank, and then, through prayer offered to the Lord, restored sight to Irenaeus’s blind son. Rejoicing, Irenaeus and his household were the first among the people of Ravenna to believe in the almighty power of the true God. The hierarch stayed on to live in their house. The saint’s preaching was accompanied by many miracles. When through his prayer the tribune’s infirm wife Thecla was healed, the tribune’s whole family was converted to the true faith. In their house Apollinaris set up a small church. For the newly converted people of Ravenna the holy bishop appointed two presbyters, Aderetus and Caloricus, and two deacons. During the twelve years of Apollinaris’s labours in the city the number of the faithful grew more and more. The alarmed pagan priests denounced the chief shepherd to the governor Saturninus, brought him before the tribunal, and tortured him cruelly. When they thought the saint had given up his spirit, the tormentors carried his body outside the city and threw it on the seashore, but it turned out that the blessed one was alive. A pious widow sheltered him, revived him and treated his wounds. The holy hierarch stayed in her house for six months and preached the faith of Christ. Apollinaris’s whereabouts became known when he restored the power of speech to Bonifantus, a nobleman of the city. This miracle converted many pagans to the true faith, and the saint was again brought before the tribunal and tortured: they forced him to stand barefoot on red-hot coals. The hierarch did not stop preaching until the godless drove him out of the city. For some time the saint was in Italy and went on teaching the Gospel as before. At this time the Church of Ravenna was governed by the presbyter Caloricus. When Apollinaris returned to his flock he was again arrested, sentenced to banishment from the city, and, bound in heavy fetters, put on board a ship bound for Illyria by way of the Danube.
Two soldiers were charged with taking him to the place of exile. Three clergy went with the banished bishop from the city of their own accord. On the way the ship was wrecked and all the passengers were drowned; only Apollinaris, the clergy accompanying him, and the two guards were saved. Under the influence of the holy hierarch’s preaching the soldiers believed in Christ and were baptised. The travellers came to Mysia. Here Apollinaris healed a noble citizen of leprosy, who, filled with gratitude, sheltered his healer and those with him. The holy father tirelessly preached the Saviour’s teaching and converted many pagans to Christianity, for which the lawless began to persecute him. They beat the blessed one mercilessly and then put him on a ship bound for Italy and sent him back. After three years of forced separation the faithful servant of Orthodoxy returned again to his flock, which received him with joy, but the pagans were again in uproar: they attacked the church, scattered the worshippers, and took Apollinaris himself to the priests in the temple of Apollo. As soon as the blessed one set foot in the temple, the idol fell down and was shattered. The enraged pagans brought Apollinaris to the new governor of the region, Taurus. Here he worked another miracle: he healed the governor’s son, who had been born blind. Taurus tried to shield the Lord’s chosen one from the ferocious mob and sent him outside the city, to his estate. Here the governor’s wife and children were baptised. Taurus himself, for fear of the emperor, did not dare to be baptised, but he treated his benefactor with love and gratitude. Apollinaris lived for four years on the governor’s estate. The pagan priests petitioned the Emperor Vespasian to put the “priest” of the Christians to death. But Vespasian did not accept the complaint and sent word to the complainants: “The gods have power enough to take revenge if they feel insulted!”
Yet the wrath of the idol-worshippers fell upon the holy father all the same: they attacked him as he was going from the city to a nearby village, and beat him cruelly. The Christians found the blessed father already dying and carried him to the village, where he lay seven days on his deathbed. At last the martyr blessed those around him with a hierarch’s blessing and commended his soul to the Lord. Saint Apollinaris governed the Church of Ravenna for twenty-eight years and reposed around the year 75 after the Nativity of Christ.
