Saint Apollinaris

Bishop and Martyr

Feast Day

July 20

Life

d. 79

Born

Antioch, Roman Syria (traditional)

Saint Apollinaris is venerated as the first Bishop of Ravenna and the patron saint of the city. According to the seventh-century Passio sancti Apollinaris and the testimony of Saint Peter Chrysologus, who as Archbishop of Ravenna in the fifth century preached on his predecessor (Sermon 128), Apollinaris was a disciple of Saint Peter who came with him from Antioch to Rome and was sent by Peter to Ravenna as the city's first bishop in the apostolic age.

The historical kernel attested by the early Ravennate liturgy and by Saint Peter Chrysologus is that Apollinaris was the first bishop of the church of Ravenna, suffered repeatedly in his episcopate, and ended his life as a martyr. The traditional date of his death is July 23, A.D. 79, under the Emperor Vespasian, after a long episcopate. The Roman Martyrology and the General Roman Calendar give him the title bishop and martyr.

His tomb at Classe, the ancient port of Ravenna, is the site of the great Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, consecrated by Bishop Maximian on May 9, 549, and famous for its sixth-century apse mosaic of Saint Apollinaris orans flanked by twelve sheep symbolizing the faithful, with Christ Transfigured above. A second basilica in the city, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, holds celebrated mosaic processions of saints.

The Memorial in the General Roman Calendar was originally fixed on July 23 (the traditional dies natalis) but was assigned to July 20 in the post-Vatican II reform to leave July 23 free for the Memorial of Saint Bridget of Sweden, co-patroness of Europe.