Saint Apollonius the Apologist – Saint Of The Day – 21 April

Apollonius (unknown–185) was a Roman senator, an exceedingly talented man, well versed in philosophy.

He was sentenced to death under the Emperor Commodus in the late 2nd century after he had been betrayed by a servant.

One of Apollonius’ slaves publicly accused him of Christianity and the the praetorian prefect, Sextus Tigidius Perennis, arrested him. Perversely the slave was immediately condemned to have his legs broken, and to be put to death, as the anti-Christian edict of Marcus Aurelius ordered that the accusers of Christians should also be put to death.

St Jerome writes a brief hagiography in his De Viris Illustribus:

“Apollonius, a Roman senator under the emperor Commodus, having been denounced by a slave as a Christian, gained permission to give a reason for his faith and wrote a remarkable volume which he read in the senate, yet none the less, by the will of the senate, he was beheaded for Christ by virtue of an ancient law among them, that Christians who had once been brought before their judgment seat should not be dismissed unless they recanted.”

The tradition says that Apollonius he argued for the superiority of Christianity’s concepts of death and life and was not afraid to die saying:

There is waiting for me something better – eternal life given to the person who has lived well on earth.

Saint Apollonius the Apologist