Martyrdom of Apollonius

Martyrdom of the holy and all-praised apostle Apollonius, also called Saccas.

When a persecution had arisen against the Christians under the emperor Commodus, a certain Perennis was proconsul of Asia. Apollonius the apostle, a devout man, an Alexandrian by birth, who feared the Lord, was arrested and brought before him. When he had been brought in, Perennis the proconsul said, “Apollonius, are you a Christian?”

Apollonius said, “Yes, I am a Christian, and for that reason I worship and fear the God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “Repent, Apollonius, be persuaded by me, and swear by the Fortune of our lord Commodus the emperor.”

Apollonius, also called Saccas, said, “Listen to me attentively, Perennis, since I am about to make before you a serious and lawful defense. Whoever repents of the just, good, and wonderful commandments of God is lawless, impious, and truly godless; but whoever repents of all injustice and lawlessness and idolatry and evil thoughts, and flees the beginnings of sins and does not turn back to them at all—such a one is righteous.

And believe us, Perennis, from this very defense, that we have learned the solemn and splendid commandments from the Word of God, who knows all the thoughts of human beings.

Moreover, we have been commanded by him not to swear at all, but to tell the truth in everything; for the truth in a “yes” is a great oath, and for this reason it is shameful for a Christian to swear; for out of falsehood comes distrust, and because of distrust, in turn, the oath. But if you want me to swear that we too honor the emperor and pray for his rule, I would gladly swear, speaking the truth, by the truly existing God, who is before the ages, whom human hands did not make, but who, on the contrary, himself appointed a man over men to reign on earth.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “Do what I tell you and repent, Apollonius, and sacrifice to the gods and to the image of the emperor Commodus.”

Apollonius smiled and said, “About repentance and the oath, Perennis, I have given you my defense; now hear about sacrifice. I too, and all Christians, offer a bloodless and pure sacrifice to almighty God, who is Lord of heaven and earth and of every breathing thing—the sacrifice offered above all through prayers, on behalf of the ⟨spiritual⟩ and rational images who have been appointed by God's providence to reign on earth.

Therefore, according to the instruction of a just commandment, we pray daily to God who dwells in heaven for Commodus, who reigns in this world, knowing well that it is by no one else, but only by the will of the unconquerable God, who encompasses all things, as I said before, that he reigns on earth.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “I give you a day, Apollonius, so that you may take counsel with yourself about your life.”

And after three days he ordered him to be brought. There was a great crowd of senators and councillors and great scholars. And having ordered him to be called, he said, “Let the acts of Apollonius be read.” When they had been read, Perennis the proconsul said, “What counsel have you taken with yourself, Apollonius?”

Apollonius said, “To remain a worshipper of God, as you determined when you took account of us in the acts.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “Because of the decree of the senate I advise you to repent and to worship and adore the gods, whom all of us men worship and adore, and to live among us.”

Apollonius said, “I know the decree of the senate, Perennis; but I became a worshipper of God precisely so as not to worship idols made with hands. Therefore I will not adore gold or silver or bronze or iron, or gods falsely so called of wood and stone, which neither see nor hear, because they are works of carpenters and goldsmiths and engravers, carvings of human hands, and they cannot move of themselves.

But I serve God who is in heaven and adore him alone, who breathed a living soul into all human beings and pours out life to all day by day.

I will not, then, debase myself, Perennis, or cast myself down before things that are baser; for it is shameful to adore what is merely of equal worth with human beings, or what is even lower, belonging to demons. [16b] For the most abject of men sin when they adore things held together by mere cohesion: a cold block sawn from stone, dry wood, idle metal, and dead bones. What nonsense is this deception!

Likewise the Egyptians adore a basin, which many call a foot-bath, along with many other loathsome things. What nonsense is this ignorance!

And the Athenians even now worship a bronze ox-skull, calling it the Fortune of the Athenians, so that it is not even possible to pray to their own ⟨gods⟩—things which seem above all to bring harm to the souls of those who trust in them.

For how do these differ from baked clay or a broken potsherd? They pray to statues of demons which do not hear, as though they could hear; ⟨as though⟩ they could ask and give back, when they do neither. For truly their form is a lie: they have ears and do not hear, eyes and do not see, hands and do not stretch them out, feet and do not walk. For the form does not change the substance. And Socrates too, it seems to me, was mocking the Athenians when he swore by the plane tree, a piece of wild wood.

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Again, a second time, people sin against heaven when they themselves adore things held together by growth: the onion and the garlic, the gods of the people of Pelusium—all of which go into the belly and are cast out into the drain. [21b] Again, a third time, people sin against heaven when they themselves adore things held together by sensation: fish and dove, dog and dog-headed baboon, crocodile and ox, asp and wolf—images of their own characters.

Again, a fourth time, people sin against heaven when they themselves adore what is held together by reason: human beings, who are demons by their working. They call gods those who were formerly human beings, as their own myths prove. For they say that Dionysus was torn apart, that Heracles was carried alive onto a pyre, and that Zeus was buried in Crete. In keeping with these myths the names were sought out, ⟨through⟩ which the very names are known. Because of their impiety, above all, I refuse them.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “Apollonius, the decree of the senate is that there are to be no Christians.”

Apollonius, also called Saccas, said, “But the decree of God cannot be overcome by a human decree. For the more they unjustly put to death, without trial, those who trust in him and have done no wrong, the more their number is increased by God.

I want you to know, Perennis, that God has appointed one death for all—for kings and senators and those who hold great power, for rich and poor, free and slave, great and small, wise and unlearned—and that there will be judgment after death for all human beings.

But there is a difference in death. For this reason the disciples of our doctrine die daily to pleasures, chastening their desires by self-control, wishing to live according to the divine commandments. And believe us truly, Perennis, that we are not lying: there is not even a particle of unbridled pleasure among us; rather, we banish every shameful sight from ⟨our⟩ eyes, and likewise ⟨from our ears every word⟩ of flatterers, so that ⟨our heart⟩ may remain unwounded.

Following such a chosen way of life, proconsul, we do not consider it hard to die for the true God. For what we are, we are through God. For this reason we endure all things, so that we may not die an evil death.

For whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. And dysentery and fever too can often kill; so I will consider that I am being carried off by one of these.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “Having decided this, Apollonius, do you die gladly?”

Apollonius said, “I live gladly, Perennis; yet I do not fear death out of love of life. For nothing is more precious than life—but eternal life, which is immortality for the soul that has lived well in this life.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “I do not know what you are saying, nor do I understand the things you set out to me as matters of your law.”

Apollonius said, “What, then, can I do for you? I too pity you for being so insensible to the beauties of grace. For the word of the Lord, Perennis, belongs to a seeing heart, as light belongs to seeing eyes; since a person does no good by speaking to the senseless, just as the rising light does no good to the blind.”

A certain Cynic philosopher said, “Apollonius, you are insulting yourself; for you have gone far astray, even if you fancy yourself a speaker of deep things.”

Apollonius said, “I have learned to pray, not to insult. But the hypocrisy in you confesses the blindness of your heart, even if you go on to a flood of idle talk; for to the senseless the truth is indeed counted an insult.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “We too know that the Word of God is the begetter of both the soul and the body of the righteous, who gave them speech and taught them what is dear to God.”

Apollonius said, “This one, our Savior Jesus Christ, having become a man in Judea, righteous in all things and filled with divine wisdom, taught us out of love for humanity who the God of all is, and what goal of virtue is fitting for a holy way of life, suited to human souls; who by his suffering put an end to the beginnings of sins.

For he taught us to stop anger, to keep desire within measure, to chasten pleasures, to cut off griefs, to share with others, to increase love, to purge away vainglory, not to turn to revenge against those who wrong us, to despise death because of the ordinance of judgment—not for doing wrong, but for bearing wrong patiently—and, further, to obey the law given by him, to honor the emperor, to worship God alone as immortal, to believe the soul immortal, to be convinced of judgment after death, and to hope for the reward of the labors of virtue after the resurrection, to be given by God to those who have lived godly lives.

Having taught us these things clearly and persuaded us with much proof, he himself won great glory for virtue, but he was envied by the uneducated, as were the righteous and the philosophers before him; for the righteous are useless to the unrighteous.

So also a certain saying has the foolish say unjustly: “Let us bind the righteous one, for he is troublesome to us.”

And one of the Greeks too, as we hear, says: “The righteous man will be scourged, racked, bound, will have his eyes burned out, and at last, having suffered every evil, will be impaled.”

So just as the informers of Athens condemned Socrates unjustly, persuading the people as well, so also certain villains condemned our teacher and Savior, having reviled him,

just as they did the prophets ⟨before him⟩, who foretold many glorious things about the man: that such a one would come, righteous and virtuous in all things, who, having done good to all people, would by his virtue persuade them to worship the God of all—whom we, having come to him first, honor, because we have learned holy commandments which we did not know, and we have not been led astray. [42b] But even if it were a delusion, as you say—this teaching that the soul is immortal, that there is judgment after death and a goal of virtue at the resurrection, and God as judge—we would gladly carry off such a deception, through which above all we have learned to live well, awaiting the hope to come, even though we suffer the opposite.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “I thought, Apollonius, that you had now changed from this resolve and would worship the gods with us.”

Apollonius said, “I hoped, proconsul, that godly thoughts would come to you and that the eyes of your soul would be enlightened by my defense, so that your heart would bear fruit and worship God the maker of all, and would daily send up your prayers to him alone through almsgiving and a humane way of life—a bloodless and pure sacrifice to God.”

Perennis the proconsul said, “I want to release you, Apollonius, but I am prevented by the decree of the emperor Commodus. Still, I will treat you humanely in your death.” [45b] And he gave the order against him that the martyr's legs be broken.

Apollonius, also called Saccas, said, “I thank my God, Perennis, proconsul, together with all who have confessed God almighty and his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, also for this sentence of yours, which brings me salvation.”

Such was the glorious end of martyrdom upon which this most holy champion, ⟨Apollonius⟩ also called Saccas, entered with a sober soul and an eager heart. And the appointed day on which, having wrestled with the evil one, he carried off the prize of victory, is here today. Come then, brothers, let us strengthen our souls in faith by his noble deeds and make ourselves lovers of such grace, through the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ, with whom be ⟨the⟩ glory and the might to God the Father with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen. [47b] The thrice-blessed Apollonius, also called Saccas, was martyred on the eleventh day before the Kalends of May according to the Romans, and according to the Asians on the ⟨21st⟩ of the eighth month, and according to us in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory to the ages. Amen.