ON ST. APOLLONIUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT BENEVENTO IN SAMNIUM.
Fourth Century.
Notice from Ferrarius and Marius Vipera.
Apollonius, Bishop and Confessor, at Benevento in Samnium (S.)
J. B. S.
Of this Apollonius no memory at all is found in the somewhat more ancient sacred Fasti: the first to number him among the Saints of Italy seems to have been Ferrarius in his earlier Catalogue of the year 1613. I know not of what precise age are the manuscript additions of the Brussels Charterhouse to Grevenus; more recently inscribed in the Catalogues of the Saints, but there it is simply read: At Benevento, of Apollonius the Bishop. Ferrarius therefore was followed by Ghini, with this his brief eulogy: At Benevento, of St. Apollonius the bishop, who succeeded holy Dorus, and sat there as the sixteenth prelate, and, illustrious for virtues, fell asleep in the Lord. He cites the tables of the church of Benevento, the same namely which Ferrarius named, treating again of the saint in the other General Catalogue of the year 1625, reciting the said tables or monuments, and repeating what he had said before, that St. Apollonius is treated in some provincial synod, I know not which; and in an ancient codex, he says here, written in Lombardic character, that one doubtless which Marius Vipera cites in his Catalogue of the Saints of the church of Benevento, and calls an ancient manuscript concerning the deeds of the Saints, part 2, marked number 168, page 26, in which there are very few things which can be handed down concerning St. Apollonius.
[2] In the want of more ancient monuments, those things must be given among the ancient fasti he is unknown. which Ferrarius published, in these words: Apollonius, bishop of Benevento, in the third place after St. Januarius presided over the church of Benevento, and suffered many things from the enemies of the faith: yielding to whose wickedness he dwelt for some time outside the city, a little chapel being built for him, and there discharged the episcopal office as he could, until by the way of confession, on the eighth before the Ides of July, he passed to the Lord. His body is said to be preserved in the church of Benevento. It seems that by "the way of confession" he hints at some appearance of martyrdom, whence in an annotation he objects to himself that perhaps someone would wonder how St. Apollonius could have lived in the time of persecution, if after Diocletian the Church enjoyed peace. For if he was the third Bishop from St. Januarius, this one suffered under Diocletian toward the end, he says, that is in the year 305. Then, to solve the difficulty, he says that although the Emperor who had stirred the persecution had ceased, there were not lacking presidents and prefects, enemies of the faith, who somewhere, under another Emperor, harassed the Christians. Let the solution stand, as far as it can stand.
[3] What Vipera reports of him. But whatever be the truth of a tradition of this kind, for the present cult at Benevento the praised Vipera bears certain testimony, when he assigns to St. Apollonius on this day a double Office, somewhat amplifying the Ferrarian encomium. And let us hear him: Apollonius, sixteenth bishop of Benevento, was elected, holy Dorus having flown to the heavenly things; then, having suffered much from the enemies of the faith, yielding to their wickedness, he dwelt for some time outside the city, a little chapel being built for him; and there discharged the episcopal office as he could, until by the way of confession he passed to the Lord on the eighth before the Ides of July, holy Cassian being substituted for him. He flourished about the year 332 from the redemption of the world. His ashes are preserved under the high altar of the cathedral of Benevento, as an inscription in marble admonishes. The Acts of this holy Bishop could not be had more fully, and are believed to have perished amid the manifold devastations of the city of Benevento: and therefore let no one wonder if the time in which he lived in the episcopate is omitted, which is lacking in most of the Bishops of this city. Understand this of the more ancient ones.