Today is the feast day of St. Apollinaris of Ravenna, martyr

[Hatikvah]

St. Apollinaris lived in the first century and was born in Antioch. He later became the first bishop of Ravenna, Italy and faced nearly constant persecution from either Vespasian or Nero, depending on the source. This is an entry from an early 20th-century Catholic Encyclopaedia on the saint (spacing is mine):

He was made Bishop of Ravenna, Italy, by Saint Peter himself. The miracles he wrought there soon attracted official attention, for they and his preaching won many converts to the Faith, while at the same time bringing upon him the fury of the idolaters, who beat him cruelly and drove him from the city.

He was found half-dead on the seashore, and kept in concealment by the Christians, but was captured again and compelled to walk on burning coals and a second time expelled…

Again he was captured, hacked with knives, had scalding water poured over his wounds, was beaten in the mouth with stones because he persisted in preaching, and was flung into a horrible dungeon, loaded with chains, to starve to death; but after four days he was put on board a ship and sent to Greece.

There the same course of preachings, miracles and sufferings continued; and when his very presence caused the oracles to be silent, he was, after a cruel beating, sent back to Italy. All this continued for three years, and a fourth time he returned to Ravenna. By this time Vespasian was Emperor, and he, in answer to the complaints of the pagans, issued a decree of banishment against the Christians.

So eventually, the Christians of Ravenna were banished and many (including St. Apollinaris) were martyred.

 

[GLam8833]

TODAY, he would be ridiculed, made light of,
ignored or just slandered on Facebook.

 

[christofirst]

In the 10th century, Saint Romuald of Ravenna decided to remain in monastic life because of a vision of Saint Apollinaris. Romuald had entered the Monastery of St. Apollinaris as a temporary penance, but the apparition he received from Apollinaris convinced him to remain. Because of this, we now have the Camaldolese Benedictines which St. Romuald later founded