Apollonius the Senator, Saint, Martyr

APOLLONIUS THE SENATOR, Saint, Martyr. - Put to death in c. 185, a Roman senator according to St. Jerome, while Eusebius makes him a man notable among the Christians of the City for his learning and philosophy. Denounced by an individual instigated by the devil - St. Jerome says he was one of his servants - A. was brought before Perennius, praetorian prefect (180-85). The latter invited him to justify himself before the senate, which A. did by pronouncing a brilliant defense of his faith; but the senate remained unmoved and condemned him to death.

Eusebius had published the entire judicial dossier relating to A. in his collection of the Acts of the ancient martyrs, today unfortunately lost. Part of the Acts of A. is however known to us through a Greek recension and an Armenian version, which represent two stages of the reworking of the primitive Acts. In general the Greek text is better, but the whole content is arbitrarily attributed by the reworker to the apostolic figure Apollo; most interesting is the dialogue between Perennius and A., who defends his faith with profound conviction and with a liveliness free of rhetoric. This recension of the Acts of A. has now passed into the collection of the authentic Acts of the martyrs. The day of A.'s death, according to the current recension of his Acts, would be 21 April. Florus assigned him 18 April, a date still preserved by the Roman Martyrology, following a confusion with the martyr Apollonius, companion of St. Valentine, commemorated on that day by the Hieronymian Martyrology.