ON SAINT APOLLONIUS, ROMAN SENATOR AND MARTYR,
ABOUT THE YEAR 185
CommentaryApollonius, Roman Senator and Martyr (Saint)
By G. H.
Eusebius Pamphili in book five of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 21 inscribed thus: "How Apollonius suffered Martyrdom at Rome, and then on what occasion martyrdom he underwent, he describes thus": "At the same time, while Commodus held the Roman Empire, Under the Emperor Commodus peace given to the Church. our affairs were in a more tranquil state, peace through the grace of God embracing all the Churches of the world. And in the meantime the saving word of God drew very many from every kind of men to the religious worship of the Supreme Deity: so that many of those who in the city of Rome were eminent in birth and wealth, together with their whole house and family, ran to obtain salvation. But the demon, most hostile to all good men, and envious by his own nature, could not bear this; therefore again devising various machinations against us, he armed himself. Saint Apollonius denounced. Finally at Rome he brought into judgment a certain Apollonius, from the number of the faithful, who was considered outstanding in humane letters and philosophy, having stirred up against him an accuser, a certain most desperate man: who seemed a fit minister of the demon for such crimes in the first place. But the wretched man, having undertaken the accusation unseasonably, when by the Emperor's edict a capital penalty had been established against those who brought such accusations, was immediately killed with his legs broken, Perennis pronouncing this sentence against him. But the Martyr most accepted to God, when the Judge had besought him with many prayers, and asked from him that he give an account of his faith before the Senate, having pronounced a most elegant oration for the defense of his faith in the presence of all, after the oration delivered in the Senate, he was beheaded was condemned to capital punishment by the Senate. For by an old law among them it had been established that Christians, who had once been called into judgment, unless they departed from their purpose, were in no way to be released.
[2] The written trial records perished, Moreover all that was said by him in judgment, and whatever he answered to Perennis questioning him, and that oration which he delivered in the Senate for the defense of our faith, whoever wishes to know, from the Passions of the ancient Martyrs collected by us will be able to learn. Thus Eusebius there; but the Passions of ancient Martyrs which he cites as collected by him, we in the first place with all lovers of sacred antiquity lament to have perished. This in the preface of his fifth book he himself calls archaion martyron synagogen (a collection of ancient Martyrs). We gather that many things from it survive here and there in book 4 chapter 15, where he refers the curious reader, collected by Eusebius: so that he may more fully learn what happened to Saint Polycarp in his last contest, to an epistle concerning his martyrdom most fully written, which he testifies to have inserted in its order in his work on the ancient Martyrs whose passions he collected. This epistle Peter Halloix edited in Greek in volume I of the Lives of the illustrious writers of the Eastern Church, and we have illustrated it from old Latin Manuscripts on January 26; and we seek similar monuments from everywhere; but of Saint Apollonius we have not been able to obtain any until now.
[3] Another eulogy from Rufinus the Presbyter. Rufinus the Presbyter touches on the same things in his Ecclesiastical History book 5 chapter 21, which we have from the recension of John Schall published at Mantua in the year 1479, and where he has indicated the prior things done under the Emperor Commodus, he continues thus: "First in the city of Rome [Of the defense of faith of Apollonius the Martyr, among the Greeks the history of his Passion, I learned that he preached quite elegantly about the superstitious perversity of men]. A certain Apollonius, illustrious both in our faith and in all the learning of Philosophy, his accuser brings to judgment, having cited a certain most unhappy and desperate man; and since the law (which had ordered Christians once denounced to be punished) in the case of the accuser, had determined that he should first be struck, by Perennius the Judge, that his legs be shattered, was the first to receive the sentence. Then Blessed Apollonius the Martyr is entreated, that the defense of his faith, which with the Senate and all the people listening he had brilliantly and splendidly delivered, he would publish in writing. And after these things by the Senate's decree he was beheaded: for thus was set by the earlier law, most inequitably promulgated." Thus in that edition Rufinus: but what is enclosed at the beginning in brackets [ ] is missing in the Lyon edition of 1526, made from the recension of Geoffrey Boussard.
[4] Saint Jerome, Saint Jerome in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers chapter 41, briefly, but with some added circumstances, thus relates: "Apollonius, a Senator of the Roman city, under Prince Commodus was betrayed by a slave Severus, because he was a Christian; being ordered to give an account of his faith, he read a remarkable volume; and nevertheless by the Senate's sentence, for Christ's sake, he was beheaded, an old law still prevailing among them, that Christians not be dismissed without denial who had once been dragged to their judgment." Thus Saint Jerome: from whom their eulogies were formed by Usuard, Ado, Notker, Bellinus, and other later writers with the present Roman Martyrology: in which these words are read in the first place: and various Martyrologies. "At Rome of Blessed Apollonius the Senator, who under Prince Commodus and Prefect Perennis, betrayed by a slave as being a Christian, being ordered to give account of his faith, composed a remarkable volume, which in the Senate he read; and nevertheless by the Senate's sentence for Christ's sake he was beheaded." In the Vatican Manuscript of Saint Peter's his memory is referred to the following day, April 19.
[5] Here one might ask how by Saint Jerome he is called Senator of the city of Rome, since Eusebius does not report this in his History: for what is inserted by some in Eusebius's Chronicle rendered into Latin by Saint Jerome, is absent in twenty codices both manuscript and printed in Pontacus, who nevertheless inserted them, but in a different character, at the 8th year of Commodus in this way: Whether it be referred in Eusebius's Chronicle? "Apollonius, a Senator of the city, having read in the Senate a remarkable volume which he had composed on the faith of Christ, for the faith of Christ was beheaded." These are absent in our illustrious Manuscript codex, as also with Mirus and Scaliger both in Greek and Latin. But let this be supposed to have been intruded from the cited place of Saint Jerome; the same Jerome confirms in epistle 84 to Magnus the Roman Orator: in which he reviews Christian writers, and among others has this: "Hippolytus also and Apollonius, Senator of the Roman City, produced their own works." Since a Senator, he gave an account of the faith before the Senate. This Saint Jerome could have known from the Acts of the martyrdom of Saint Apollonius, which Eusebius testifies were written, and that he had collected them among other Passions of Martyrs. Certainly for this reason Perennis, who was Prefect of the Praetorium and of the Equestrian order, seems to have ordered Saint Apollonius the Senator to give account of his faith before the Senate. This namely honor the Senate ought to have or at least wished to defer to him, as not first condemning a man of Senatorial order until the Senate itself had examined his crime. The Senate therefore, when it had heard Apollonius, answered that the man should be judged according to the prescription of the laws: which Perennis carried out by the Senate's decree.
[6] It is also obscure in Saint Jerome's cited eulogy how Saint Apollonius was betrayed by a slave Severus, by what slave he was denounced? whether Severus was the name of the slave; indeed whether it was even a slave of Saint Apollonius, as Christopherson seems to have understood the passage of Eusebius, where only is read "one of his own attendants," which with Valesius we have referred to the demon, the instigator of evils, of whom above we treated. Sophronius translated the passage of Saint Jerome into Greek as: "betrayed by a slave to Severus," as though Saint Apollonius was denounced by a slave to Severus the Judge; who was Perennis, not Severus.
[7] Baronius in his Notes to the Martyrology, wondering perhaps to the reader that the Church of God is said to have been at rest under Commodus, whom Lampridius writes to have been called with public outcry of the people crueler than Nero and fouler than Domitian, from Marcus Maximus the ancient historian, replies under Commodus the Emperor the quiet of the Church bought: that this was not out of clemency or piety, but for his own convenience that Commodus did this: who, as Lampridius testifies, sold variations of punishments etc. Which are made clearer from what Tertullian writes in On Flight in Time of Persecution, where he says: "At these times the Church of God had bought peace, when they paid the Church's tribute to the treasury, that Christians might act safely." Which usage Tertullian disapproved, being then imbued with the heresy of Montanus. More can be seen in Baronius and Lampridius, who indicate the death of Perennis and other evils that followed. Of the Emperor's edict against informers, above indicated by Eusebius, we treated on April 13 in the Life of Saint Justin the Philosopher, where in chapter 3 the very edict of Antoninus Pius is produced. Edicts concerning informers That however by sanction of the old law Christians were to be punished when called into judgment, seems to have been done from the rescript of the Emperor Trajan to Pliny the Younger, and Christians called into judgment. which with his epistle we published in the Life of Saint Ignatius Bishop of Antioch on February 1, § V.
[8] Nicephorus Callistus, book 4 of Ecclesiastical History chapter 26, treated of Saint Apollonius; but wrongly thought him the same as that Apollonius who had written against the new prophecy of Montanus: whom Saint Jerome in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers very well distinguishes, for of that one in chapter 40, Apollonius another writer. of Saint Apollonius the Senator, as we said, he treats in chapter 42.
[9] George Cardosus in the Hagiology of Portugal celebrates on this day Saint Apollonius, because his sacred head was brought from Rome in the time of Pope Paul V, and placed in the Sanctuary at Évora of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers; Whether the head at Évora, and the body at Bologna? but Masinus in Bononia Perlustrata asserts that the body of Saint Apollonius together with the head is kept in the Church of Saint Francis, obtained from Rome in the year 1622 under the Pontificate of Gregory XV. Whether these are sufficiently proved, let themselves see. A great bone of Saint Apollonius the Martyr is preserved in the church of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp, and the day April 18 is also indicated.