St. Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr

Tomorrow, Wednesday 20th July is the (optional) Memorial of St. Apollinaris, bishop and martyr. According to tradition, St. Peter sent Apollinaris, a Syrian and possibly one of the seventy-two disciples of Jesus mentioned in Luke 10, from Antioch to Ravenna, Italy, as its first bishop. His preaching of the Good News was so successful that the pagans there beat him and drove him from the city. He returned, however, and was exiled a second time. After preaching in the area surrounding Ravenna, he entered the city again. After being cruelly tortured, he was put on a ship heading to Greece. Pagans there caused him to be expelled to Italy, where he went to Ravenna for a fourth time. He died from wounds received during a savage beating at Classis, a suburb of Ravenna. A beautiful basilica honoring him was built there in the sixth century. His memorial was removed from the 1969 edition of the Roman Missal but restored in the 2002 edition. He is invoked against gout, venereal disease and epilepsy.