Saint Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr

Apollinaris was the first bishop of Ravenna, in the 2nd century according to most historians. Peter Chrysologus, bishop of Ravenna in the 5th century, praised him in a sermon as a bishop who had suffered for the faith. His later Passion makes him a disciple of the apostle Peter sent from Antioch, tells of many miracles, of repeated arrests, tortures and banishments, and of his death at Classe, the port of Ravenna, after years as bishop.

His tomb was at Classe, where in 549 the great basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe was consecrated; its apse mosaic shows him with his arms raised in prayer amid sheep. His cult spread through northern Italy and beyond the Alps.