Feast Day : February 9
Patronage: dentists, toothache sufferers
Apollonia lived in Alexandria, Egypt, as a deaconess.Under Emperor Philip the Arabian and his successor Trajanus Decius, mobs roamed about Alexandria persecuting Christians. Apollonia, who was elderly, was snared by a mob. She refused to deny Christ. The mob tortured her, tearing out her teeth with pincers. They took her to a pyre and threatened to throw her on the fire. Apollonia answered by throwing herself into the flame. The account of the life of Apollonia was written by St. Dionysius to Fabian, bishop of Antioch. In art she is depicted with a golden tooth at the end of her necklace, or with pincers holding a tooth.
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