Apollonius The Apologist - Life

Life

Four different sources speak of Saint Apollonius of Rome:

• a record of the trial incorporated into the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea (265-340);
• chapters 40 and 42 of the De Viris Illustribus by Saint Jerome (347-420),
• two versions of the Passio of Apollonius, one Greek, the other Armenian, which were discovered in the late 19th century.

These sources present Apollonius as an illustrious Roman, even, it seems, a senator, and an exceedingly talented man, well versed in philosophy. He was denounced as a Christian to the Pretorian Prefect Perennius. Summoned to defend himself, he read to the senate, according to Saint Jerome, "a remarkable volume" in which, instead of recanting, he defended the Christian faith. As a result, he was condemned to death on the basis of the law established by the Emperor Trajan.

The sources say he was subjected to two investigations, the first by the Prefect Perennius, the second, three days later, by a group of senators and jurists. The hearings were conducted in a calm and courteous manner. Apollonius was permitted to speak with only rare interruptions, aimed at getting him to tone down his remarks, which were making him liable to punishment.

Apollonius was not afraid to die, because, he said: "There is waiting for me something better: eternal life, given to the person who has lived well on earth." And he argued for the superiority of Christianity's concepts of death and life.

The sources disagree on the manner of his death. The Greek Passio says he died after having his legs crushed, a punishment inflicted also on the slave who denounced him; but in the Armenian account he is decapitated.