APOLLINARIS, bishop of Ravenna, saint. He was the first to occupy the episcopal see of Ravenna; the presence of his 11th successor at the Council of Sardica in 342 suggests that he lived toward the end of the 2nd century. He is venerated as a martyr by all hagiographical sources after the 7th century; but Peter Chrysologus (Serm. 128: PL 52, 552), while affirming him as a martyr—indeed the only martyr of the Church of Ravenna—acknowledges that tradition venerates him only as a confessor. This tradition, however, as Chrysologus himself notes, knows of persecutions and torments for which he often poured out his blood and in consequence of which he succumbed.
It is therefore not a matter of mere moral martyrdom, to which so many laudatory writings of the time appeal, but rather a simple translation into post-Constantinian language of the ancient term *confessor*, a translation that is in fact more accurate than in the case of other “martyrs” who died in times of peace, such as St. Felix of Nola. It would be Roman sources (Registrum Greg., V, 11; VIII, 36) that would most explicitly recognize A. as a martyr, while in Ravenna’s texts only the *Passio* would revive the motif. Buried within his own Church, as Chrysologus also reports, he was pointed out to the piety of the faithful by a modest shrine located in the sepulchral area of Classe, not far from the well-known cemetery of the Basilica Probi, until the mid-6th century.
In truth, the *Passio Sancti Apollinaris* (BHL 623), long credited with great antiquity (it was considered the work of his immediate successor), asserts that it was St. Peter himself who sent him to Ravenna. Criticism, however, has shown that the work is no older than the 7th century and reflects the polemical motives of the struggle for autocephaly (666). It seems, nevertheless, that relations between A. and Peter were already supposed in an earlier period by the same *Liber Pontificalis* of Rome (ed. Duchesne, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1886, p. 323). A similar appeal to the Apostle in a polemic by Chrysologus (Serm. 175) against Milanese jurisdiction, and the fact that the proto-bishops of Arles and Aquileia (erected as metropolitan sees to the detriment of Milan, as Ravenna was) were also said to be disciples of St. Peter, would suggest that the legend originated from anti-Milanese aims much older than 666 and from an environment other than Ravenna.
The customary date of St. A.’s feast, celebrated in Ravenna with great solemnity (Reg. Greg., V, 11), is recorded in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum* on July 23; it does not appear in the Leonine, Gelasian (Reg. 316), or Gregorian (Pad. 42) Sacramentaries (the Hadrianic recension does, however, know a *Statio ad Apollinarem*, but for the 5th Thursday of Lent). It is attested in the Würzburg lectionary, which already assigns to it the Gospel pericope with a polemical flavor, Lk. 22:24-30, and in the post-Carolingian liturgical books. His cult, widely diffused in the territory subject to the Byzantines, extended also to Lombardy, France, and especially the Rhineland. In Rome, Pope Symmachus (498–514) dedicated an oratory to him in the Rotunda of St. Andrew (Lib. Pont., ed. Duchesne, I, p. 261), and Honorius (635–38) built a Vatican basilica, at the same time establishing that every Saturday a procession should move from there to St. Peter’s (Lib. Pont., ed. Duchesne, I, 323). The basilica in the Campus Martius appears only in the 8th century, in the biography of Pope Adrian in the *Itinerarium* of Einsiedeln.
The great basilica of Classe, center of such widespread diffusion of the cult, was begun by Bishop Ursicinus and consecrated by Maximian on May 9, 549.
It was not, however, built over the saint’s tomb. Agnellus reports (Lib. Pont., XXXVIII, 85–87) that Archbishop Maurus transferred the sacred body into the temple; but this is contradicted by an inscription (CIL, XI, 205, certainly authentic despite long-standing controversy), now on the right wall of the church but placed there by Maximian on the original shrine to mark the accomplished translation, by which the basilica itself was consecrated. Such a singular eccentricity in the building’s location with respect to the relics may perhaps be explained by the intention of erecting it on high dunes to protect it from the waters. Preceded by a quadriporticus of various dates, the basilica (55 x 30 m) has three naves, with a *prothesis* and *diaconicon*, supported by 24 remarkable columns of early date. The different levels on which these rest, as well as the various types of masonry in the central nave, bear witness to the work of troubled restorations. Only the presbytery, accessed by the broad staircase of 1723, preserves in its mosaics all the ancient splendor. In the highest part of the apse’s conch is symbolized the Transfiguration of Christ; on the lower level stands the majestic figure of St. A. in the attitude of an orant with six lambs on either side. Below, on one side are depicted the sacrifices of Abel, Melchizedek, and Abraham, and on the other the conferral by Constantine IV of privileges upon the Church of Ravenna. Between the windows are portrayed four archbishops of Ravenna. The triumphal arch has in the center Christ between the symbols of the Evangelists and the apostles represented as lambs coming from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. In other panels beneath are depicted two palms, two archangels, Michael and Gabriel, and the Evangelists Matthew and Luke.
The location of the saint’s relics was the subject of heated debate in the late Middle Ages. To elude the threats of raiders infesting the undefended shore, in the 9th century they had been carefully hidden; but where? A *Historia translationis Sancti Apollinaris* (Acta SS. Iulii, V, Paris 1868, p. 374), written in the 12th century by monks of St. Apollinare Nuovo, recounted that Bishop John (VII?, 850–78) had transferred them into the city, into the ancient palatine basilica of Theodoric, reconciled to Catholic worship in the 6th century under the name of St. Martin in Ciel d’Or.
The monks of Classe contested this, citing instead the discovery of the body, which occurred at Classe in 1173, as recounted in a *Tractatus de inventione Sancti Apollinaris* (Rerum Ital. Script., I, 2, p. 538). The controversy was long and bitter. Today it is recognized that for some time the relics actually rested in St. Martin’s, giving rise from at least the 9th century to a third name, St. Apollinaris in Novo (there already existed in the city St. Apollinaris in Velo), in an annular crypt dug for the purpose and recently identified; but from there they soon returned to Classe, where they were found in 1173. The basilica of St. Apollinare Nuovo is also three-aisled (42 x 21 m), still adorned with Theodoric and Byzantine mosaics. Scenes of the life and passion of Christ above, prophets and apostles below, belong to the first period; the second period features processions of confessors and virgins offering their crowns to Christ.
Studi. — More recent and with bibliography: F. Lanzoni, pp. 724–39; H. Delehaye, L’hagiographie ancienne de Ravenne, in Analecta Bollandiana, 47 (1929), pp. 1–30; E. Will, St. Apollinare de Ravenne, Strasbourg 1936; G. Lucchesi, Note aggiornifiche sui primi vescovi di Ravenna, Faenza 1941. Giovanni Lucchesi.