Apollonia of Alexandria
Apollonia of Alexandria , lived in Alexandria , Egypt , in the 3rd century . She probably died a virgin and martyr around 249 . Her feast day in the Catholic and Orthodox churches is February 9th .
Life
From a letter attributed to the Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria to his official brother Fabius of Antioch it emerges that the consecrated Virgin Apollonia was kidnapped during the persecution of Christians under Decius . Her teeth were knocked out and threatened with burning her alive if she did not deny her belief. Then she jumped into a pyre that she had piled up and set on fire. The church fathers Ambrose and Augustine later dealt with the question of whether this counted as martyrdom or as suicide.
According to another tradition, Apollonia was a king's daughter who was martyred on the orders of her father. A third tradition sees Apollonia as a sister of St. deacon Laurentius . She moved to Egypt, where she suffered martyrdom under Decius . Her grave is believed to be on Mount Tabor or Sinai .
The beginnings of the worship of St. Apollonia are in the dark. Her name appears in various martyrologies in the 9th century . It is recorded in the extensions of Florus to the Martyrology of Bedas the Venerable on February 20 and in the Martyrology of Ados of Vienne on February 9. This was included in the Martyrologium Romanum as a memorial day . According to tradition that she is the sister of St. According to Laurentius, St. Apollonia is listed together with this in some books of hours .
Adoration
Saint Apollonia is usually depicted as a virgin with the attributes of martyrdom: martyr's palm , crown or laurel wreath , tongs or teeth. Because of the nature of her martyrdom, she is called upon to deal with toothache and ailments and is also the patron saint of dentists. Since the saint is invoked when there is a toothache, seeds of the common peony lined up on chains and given to teething toddlers to chew were also called "Apollonia grains".
Farmer rules
On the day of remembrance of St. A farmer 's rule applies to Apollonia: "If it is damp in Apollonia, winter escapes very late."
literature
- Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz : APOLLONIA, saint, virgin, martyr in Alexandria. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 199.
- Wilhelm Bulk : St. Apollonia - patroness of dental patients. Your cult and image through the ages . (Medical dissertation Münster) Bielefeld and Münster / Westphalia 1967.
- Dominik Groß : Apollinia, Hl. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Encyclopedia Medical History. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 76 f.
- H. Nux: Sainte Apolline, patrone de ceux qui souffrent des dents. Paris 1947.
- Charles D. O'Malley, John B. Saunders: St. Apollonia, patroness of dentistry. In: Journal of American College Dentists 12, 1945, pp. 101-115.
- Dieter Pack: The historical development of the Apollonia cult with special consideration of the so-called "small devotional image ". (= Würzburg medical historical research; vol. 85). Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-3206-3 , also dissertation, University of Würzburg 2003 ( full text, PDF, 58 MB urn : nbn: de: bvb: 20-opus-7029 )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Bulk: St. Apollonia. Patroness of dental patients: Your cult and image through the ages. Bielefeld and Münster / Westphalia 1967.
- ↑ Robert Uhde: The martyrdom of St. Apollonia . Bayerisches Zahnärzteblatt , 1/2 2009, pp. 67–69. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Apollonia of Alexandria |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Virgin, martyr and saint |
| DATE OF BIRTH | before 200 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Alexandria |
| DATE OF DEATH | at 249 |
| Place of death | Alexandria |