SAINT APOLLONIA—THE PATRON SAINT OF DENTISTRY.

By Henry A. Kelley, D. M. D., Portland, Maine.

VER since I have known that den­ in his History of Dental Surgery, refers tistry had a patron saint I have to this Saint and a painting of Saint E been interested in her and have Apollonia was presented to the Philadel­ from time to time gathered material ger- phia Academy of Stomatology by Dr. C. main to the subject. Among the legends N. Pierce in 1900. So far as I know in regard to this saint is one that a por­ these are the only references to Saint tion of her jaw, that was beaten out of Apollonia in our dental literature. her by stones by the infidels in their For centuries before there was any attempts to make Apollonia forswear Christianity, is now in the church at dental profession, men and women suffer­ Saint Anne de Beaupre. ing from toothache had been accustomed On a recent excursion to Quebec I to call upon Saint Apollonia to come to made a visit to Saint Anne and you may their assistance. Poor mortals, that was be sure that one of the things that drew about all they could do, for a medieval me thither was to see this portion of the toothache was a pretty hopeless affair. jaw of Saint Apollonia. I made a brave If Apollonia declined to help you, you effort to locate this piece of jaw but not might try a charm, or go upon a little being a French scholar and French being pilgrimage, but in the end you would the “ official” language at Saint Anne, I probably be quite speedily reduced to the was unable to find it. I am very much drastic remedy of extraction, and be afraid it either is not there or else is not forced to hunt up some one with a pair accounted among the valued possessions of forceps or tweezers— the barber, sur­ of the church. geon or the blacksmith. Extraction Upon my return home, I concluded to could have been no laughing matter in gather together the material I have and those rough days. Wise and wealthy peo­ present it to the dental profession. In ple saved up their toothaches till the day my search for material I have been aided came round for one of the great annual by my friend, Mr. Charles G. Marrett, fairs or markets, and then had their de­ and the pictures I show I have obtained cayed stumps harvested, amid'a blare of mostly from friends who have traveled trumpets, by artists in gorgeous costumes. abroad and have been on the outlook for On such occasions the victim would be pictures of Saint Apollonia for me, further enheartened by a large and in­ knowing I am interested in the subject. terested concourse of spectators. An article on Saint Apollonia ap­ But perhaps the best thing to do, if peared in the July, 1913, number of the Saint Apollonia refused her aid was to Dental Brief. This article, however, has seek some monastery and ask the good many inaccuracies and I alsc believe I brothers to take your tooth out. They can add much to the subject. Dr. Koch, were usually willing to do so, if ap­

400 KELLEY—SAINT APOLLONIA. 401

proached in the proper spirit. They for the history of the early Christian kept up this tooth pulling prac­ Church is the Ecclesiastical History of tice, too, into quite recent times. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in the Not so very many years ago, if fourth century. If we turn to book VI, we happened to be on the Capitoline chapter 41, of this work we shall find Hill at Rome on one of the proper days, there a letter from Dionysius, Bishop of we should have seen a gloomy band of Alexandria, written to Fabius, Bishop men, women, and children toiling up the of Antioch, which gives an account of long, steep stairs to the portals of the the Decian persecution at Alexandria, church of Santa Marie in Araceli, not and also tells us all we really know of barefooted or on their knees, but with Saint Apollonia. Since it is her only swollen, aching cheeks, done up in historical document, we will quote the cloths or hankerchiefs, which would be portions which relate to her: tied in large disconsolate bow knots in “ The persecution with us did not be­ a way no longer the fashion for pedes­ gin with the imperial edict, but preceded trian toothaches. On the upper step a it a whole year. And a certain prophet squad of Franciscan friars, forceps in and poet excited the mass of the heathen hand, awaited the sufferers, and there against us, stirring them up to their na­ on the crest of Araceli’s marble staircase, tive superstition. Stimulated by him, the populace of Rome, amid much unre­ and taking full liberty to exercise any strained and hearty screeching, were kind of wickedness, they considered this wont to have their teeth out at the ex­ the only way of showing their piety— to pense of the church. slay us. First, then, seizing a certain On the whole, Apollonia does not seem aged man, named Metras, they called on to have done her duty very well. Teeth him to utter impious expressions, and as "are tolerably scarce in Christian history. he did not obey, they beat his body with Even such an exquisite as King Henry clubs, and pricked his face and eyes; III of France at the height of his fasci­ after which they led him away to the nations did not possess a tooth to his suburbs, where they stoned him.” The name. letter then relates how they also mal­ We find there are two Saint Apollo- treated and stoned a woman named nias; a real one, as historic as Queen Quinta and continues: “ Then with one Elizabeth or Julius Caesar, and no accord, all rushed upon the houses of the handsomer; and a legendary one, all pious, and whomsoever of their neigh­ youth and grace and loveliness. And it bors they knew, they drove thither in all 'Ts the latter the artists painted, and the haste, and despoiled and plundered toothache patients invoked. Altho so them, setting apart the more valuable of far as she goes the real Apollonia is ex­ the articles for themselves; but the more tremely authentic, we have only a few common and wooden furniture they details concerning her. We know that threw about and burnt in the roads, pre­ she lived in Alexandria, and that on senting a sight like a city taken by the February 9th of the year 2 SQ^ during the enemy. They also seized that admirable persecution of the Christians ordered by virgin Apollonia, then in advanced age, the Emperor Decius, she was cruelly tor­ and beating her jaws, they broke out all tured by having her teeth knocked out, her teeth, and kindling a fire before the and then was burned to death. As every­ city, threatened to bum her alive, unless body knows, one of the chief authorities she would repeat their impious expres- 402 THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION. sions. She appeared at first to shrink a teaching. And she asked them if the Vir­ little, but when suffered to go, she sud­ gin Mary would hear her if she prayed denly sprang into the fire and was con­ that a child might be given her, and the sumed.” That is all our actual knowl­ pilgrims replied that the Virgin would edge of Saint Apollonia and it is surely be gracious to her without any doubt. sufficiently pathetic and deplorable. Then the wife of the magistrate fell on She was promptly canonized, and took her knees and prayed long and fervently her place among the noble army of mar­ to the Holy Virgin, and her request was tyrs, but one can readily guess that “ an granted and a daughter was bom to her, admirable virgin in advanced age” would to whom she gave the name of Apollonia. not be so popular with painters and writ­ The child grew into a maiden as ers of religious poetry and afflicted devo­ lovely and graceful as a flower, and as tees as something younger and more ro­ good and pure as she was beautiful. The mantic. Therefore, it is not surprising family of a Roman magistrate quite nat­ that “ the admirable virgin in advanced urally conformed to the established re­ age” grew steadily younger and more ligion of the state, but the mother never beautiful in church tradition and eccle­ ceased to talk to her daughter about the siastical art, and as she grew more wonderful circumstances of her birth, attractive, her story became more elabo­ and about Christ and the Holy Virgin rate. Here it is in its revised and ac­ to whom she had addressed her prayers. cepted form: Apollonia drank in all the details, and There lived in Alexandria during the as she got older there sprang up in her first half of the third century a very heart a strong desire to be baptized and opulent magistrate of unknown name. become a Christian. And Heaven did He had married a wife whom he loved not leave her helpless. An angel came devotedly, and who loved him fondly in to her one day and led her out of Alex­ return. The only blot on the happiness andria into the desert to the cell of Leo­ of this pair was the fact that they had no nine, a disciple of Saint Anthony. Apol­ children. They addressed earnest and lonia told him her story and her wish to unceasing prayers to Juno, Ceres, Jupi­ be a Christian, and Leonine baptized her ter, all the gods, to grant unto them a son forthwith. Hardly had he done so than or daughter to inherit their vast wealth, another angel swooped down from but all without avail. Three pious pil­ Heaven, and throwing a garment of shin­ grims arrived in Alexandria, and went ing white about Apollonia cried: “ This from house to house asking alms in the is Apollonia, the servant of Jesus; Go, name of the Redeemer and the Blessed now, to Alexandria and preach the Virgin, his mother, for they were tired faith of Christ.” and hungry. The magistrate’s wife, Apollonia returned home filled with seated at her window one day saw them, ecstasy and zeal. She went among the and heard their petition at a house people and preached to them with won­ across the way. Her interest was aroused derful eloquence, making many con­ by their strange words, and she called verts. Before long complaints concern­ to them saying: “ What sort of begging ing her and her doings began to pour in is that of yours, and who are the gods in on her father. Why did he, a Roman whose name you ask?” Wherefore the magistrate, allow his daughter to break pilgrims told her of Christ, His life and so flagrantly the laws of the Empire? Saint Apollonia by Carlo Dolci. This picture hung in the Corsino Palace in Rome in the room in which lived and died Queen Christina of Sweden. 404 THE JOURNAL OP THE NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION.

He, much disturbed, called Apollonia on her sympathy for theirs. The follow­ to him to explain her conduct. She de­ ing prayer is published in F. Martinez’s fended herself with dignity and fervor, book on dentistry published in Yalldolid, and still kept on with her preachings and Spain, in 1557: conversions, until her father, beside him­ Illustrious virgin martyr, Apollonia, self with anger, gave her up to the Ro­ Pray to the Lord for us man governor to be dealt with as a crimi­ Lest for our offenses and sins we be nal. The governor ordered her to be punished taken into the temple of one of the pagan By diseases of the teeth. gods, Serapis, most likely, and bade her (Translation.) fall on her knees before the statue of the Another ancient prayer is the follow­ deity and adore it. Apollonia flatly re­ ing: “ Eternally omnipotent God, for fused to comply. She advanced haught­ whose honor blessed Apollonia, virgin ily to the statue, made the sign of the and martyr, steadfastly suffered the hor­ cross, and commanded the demon inside rible crushing-out of her teeth, grant to depart. There was an awful rumble, Thou as we desire, that, we may be made a crash, a shriek, and from the broken happy in commemoration of her, thru image the demon fled, crying: “ The whose most pious intercession we were holy virgin, Apollonia, drives me forth.” freed from toothache and all imminent This proceeding served to send the evils. Through Christ our Lord. governor into a fit of violent wrath. At Amen.” There is also an amusing dia­ his bidding the girl was bound to a col­ logue in Cervantes’ Don Quixote (pub­ umn, and one by one her beautiful teeth lished in 1615) as follows: were all pulled out with a pair of pin­ “ Be in no pain then,” replied the cers. Then a big fire was kindled, and, bachelor, “ but go home, in Heaven’s as Apollonia persisted in her faith, she name, and get something warm for was flung headlong into the blaze, and breakfast, and on your way repeat the there gave up her soul to God, being prayer of Saint Apollonia— if you know borne to Heaven by His angels. it.” “ Bless me!” replied the house­ Even in the guise of a lovely and ro­ keeper, “ the prayer o f Saint Apollonia, mantic maiden Saint Apollonia never say you? That might do something if attained great vogue. When one com­ my master’s distemper laid in his gums, pares her to some other female saints— but alas! it is all in his brains.” There Cecilia, Catherine, Agnes, Lucia, must have been millions of these tooth­ Agatha, Barbara, Margaret— and thinks ache devotees thru the long centuries, of all the multitude ,’of churches and but they seem on the whole to have been chapels which have been reared to them an ungrateful lot, for once their pain in many lands, and the hundreds of stopped or their teeth were out, they paintings of them which fill the galleries evidently quite quickly forgot their and ornament the altars of the world, patroness. Saint Apollonia’s light seems but a dim There was once in Florence a convent one indeed. Apparently, the only people dedicated to Apollonia, but it was long who have cherished her and her memory ago secularized and is now devoted to to any extent, have been those with some military purpose. Only its refec­ toothaches. They were told or read of tory remains intact. There one can see her sufferings, with her teeth, and relied a small gallery of paintings, but Saint Illustration No. 2.

Portion of interior of the church of San Maurizio in Milan showing the partition wall separating that part of the building open to the general public from the portion reserved exclusively for the wor­ ship of the nuns and the convent. The Altar piece is not by Luini but everything above it and on either side is his. 406 THE JOURNAL, OF THE NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION.

Apollonia does not figure on any of the Adolphus, the Christina who preferred canvases. men’s clothes to her ordinary female The pictures of this saint are few any­ attire, who found being queen a dull where. Mrs. Jameson in her Sacred and business and so gave up her throne, who Legendary Art names those that were murdered her lover Monaldeschi at Fon­ known to her, and few things escaped tainebleau, who refused to comb her hair the keen eyes of that indefatigable Eng­ oftener than once a month and at last lish lady, but strangely enough the Saint would not comb it at all, and clapped Apollonias we know best and think most upon her head a mothy brown wig like of, she does not mention, while most of Dr. Johnson’s. Now, on the walls of the paintings on her list, which is a short the rooms in which this eccentric lady one, have since her time by reason of lived and died, hang the pictures of the sales and many shiftings hidden them­ Galleria Nazionale of Rome, and among selves irretrievably from the gaze of the them is Saint Apollonia by Carlo Dolce ordinary tourist. Mrs. Jameson saw a (Illustration No. 1) in the artist’s cus­ Saint Apollonia by Hemlinck— where tomary over sentimental manner. Car­ she does not say— one by Furini in the lo’s saint is a very pretty girl, but is Rinuccini Palace at Florence, one by not impressive or convincing as a Granacci in Munich, others by the same Christian martyr. Dionysius of Alex­ artist in the Academy at Florence, and andria would surely never recognize lastly the saint’s martyrdom by Procac- in her “ the admirable virgin of advanced cini in Milan Cathedral. But pictures age,” who, for her faith leaped into have been of late years much bandied flames of fire. Her head is thrown back, about by art critics, shuffled and dealt her eyes are raised with languishing about so extensively among artists, that glances to Heaven; one hand is pressed what was called a Furini or a Granacci against her bosom, in the other she holds in Mrs. Jameson’s time, may nowadays tight, in a pair of forceps, a very perfect circulate as an Allori or a Bugiardini. tooth. But we refuse to believe for a Palaces and their contents have been so minute that this tooth is hers. Look at bought and sold that the migrations of her! she has not lost a single one. paintings have been many and extensive. '. One Artist has painted Saint Apollo­ There are, nevertheless, two or three nia to perfection; that is Bernardino Saint Apollonias which can be easily Luini, who lived'”a hundred and fifty found and enjoyed. years before Carlo Dolce, and did his Go to Rome, cross the Tiber, and in best work during the first quarter of the the Trastevere quarter visit the big Cor- Sixteenth century. Bernardino Luini sini Palace which stands just across the was the most celebrated master of the street from the Famesina where Raphael Lombard school. He was bom at Luino painted some immortal frescoes. This about 1465. He is one of the five great Corsini Palace was in other centuries painters whose “ supremacy” Ruskin the home of various lordly papal neph­ names. Upon this always graceful, al­ ews, Riarii, Corsini, etc. Within its ways tender, always lovely painter fell walls in 1689 died that most curious and some shreds from the mantle of his great unpleasant female, Queen Christina of master, Leonardo. Saint Apollonia may Sweden, the Roman Catholic daughter of well rejoice that she found such an ar­ the great Protestant champion, Gustavus tist to portray her, for having once be- Illustration No. 3.

Detail on LEFT of High Altar as shown in Illustration No. 2. 408 THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION.

held her as Luini has depicted her at Giovanni Bentivoglio turned quite Milan and Saronno, you feel an affec­ naturally to Duke Ludovico for help and tionate interest in her, tho you may not a haven, since his wife was of the be a dentist, or even have a toothache. Sforza family, and his son, Alessandro, Most beautiful of all Saint Apollonias had married another of the house. Gio­ is she of San Maurizio on the Corso vanni was now well on in years and in Magenta at Milan. There is a bit of declining health. Nevertheless, he was- history connected with her and her reluctant to surrender Bologna to the charming sister saints. Early in the Six­ Pope, and sent his son, Alessandro, to. teenth century a family of the name of France to try to win Louis X II to the Bentivoglio were lords of Bologna. Bo­ Bentivoglio cause. Alessandro was en­ logna belonged by right to the Popes, as tirely unsuccessful in this attempt, aiid did Ravenna, Forli, Rimini, Perugia, while absent in France, his fairher and many other cities of Central Italy, Giovanni died. They buried hirn in for several hundred years before, Pepin, the church of San Maurizio quite King of the Franks, had conquered the close to his habitation, a church Lombards and handed their cities over often called the church of the Great to Rome. But the hand of the Papacy Monastery, because attached to it had often been weak, its temporal was a big convent for nuns with many authority defied with impunity, so buildings and extensive gardens. Some that in the course of time, ambitious years later the beautiful daughter of 1 wealthy families had gained the control Alessandro Bentivoglio took the veil and ■ of affairs in most of these cities and ruled entered the convent of San Maurizio as, j them as their own. Such were the Polen- Sister Alessandra. Of course the inter­ tani in Ravenna, the Malatesta in est of the Bentivogli in this establish­ Rimini, the Baglioni in Perugia, and ment was now great. The church had I the Bentivogli in Bologna. Toward the become ruinous; an architect nanjed , close of the fifteenth century and the Giovanni Dolcebuono was commis­ beginning of the Sixteenth, there came sioned by the convent to rebuild it,' and : to the Papal throne a series of strong, Alessandro Bentivoglio, the deprived j able, warlike Pontiffs bent upon wrest­ Duke of Bologna took upon himself the ing these cities from the hands of the burden of decorating the interior of the : usurping lords. Such were Sixtus IV, edifice where his father lay in his tomb, 1 Alexander VI, and Julius 11. The last, and where his daughter was to worship ; a fierce old warrior priest succeeded in every day as a nun. He summoned to j ousting Giovanni Bentivoglio from Bo­ him a painter whose name just then was 1 logna, and sending him in full flight to golden in Milan— Bernardino Luini— j a place of safety. Giovanni found a and bade him cover the walls of the new secure refuge in Milan, then at the building with frescoes, and Luini paint- ; height of its glory under the Sforza ed on the walls of San Maurizio some dukes. Florence itself, under her of his most delightful works. munificent Medici, could hardly vie for . . .. Every stone of the Great .Convent has . magnificence and culture with the Milan been swept away; streets of close set of Duke Ludovico II Moro, to bask in buildings now cross and recross the site whose sympathetic patronage, architects, of the gardens where Sister Alessandra artists, sculptors, and men of letters hur­ used to walk, but the church still re­ ried from all Italy. mains intact, a thing of beauty. It is Illustration No. 4.

Detail on RIGHT of High Altar as shown in Illustration No. 2. 410 THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION. rather like a large hall than a church, ernacle on the opposite wall, is a figure for it has no side aisles, only a series of the Risen Christ. Beside him stand of flanking chapels. Every inch of the two other saints, sisters in sweet sanc­ church is covered with frescoes; walls, tity to Cecilia and Ursula. One of them ceiling, galleries, chapels; and most of is Lucia, with her two tortured eyes them are from the hand of Luini. But stuck into a sort of sharp bodkin; the we are not in search of Luinis. We are other is Apollonia with her forceps and after Saint Apollonia, and we shall not ^ tooth, and a book,;— for she was a have much difficulty in finding her. : teacher— and also her martyr’s palm. This is a. nun’s church. Therefore, ■ This Apollonia is certainly a figure of dignity and beauty worth going far to midway of it, a partition wall rises - see. In the lunette above, (Illustration almost to the vaulting, separating that'- No. 2) a lady kneels, plainly a great part of the building open to the general lady, for look at her sumptuous robe of public from the portion reserved exclu­ white brocade that sweeps and billows sively for the worship of the nuns and about her, and swells into more than the convent. It is on this partition wall ample sleeves. This is Alessandro’s against which stands the High Altar, wife, Ippolita Sforza. A Benedictine that we discover the great Luinis in all nun stands hovering over her, a white their gay, clear colors, and their serene dove perched on her shoulder. This beauty. The altar piece is not by Luini, nun pretends to be Saint Scholastica, the but everything above it and on either sister of Saint Benedict), but she is side is his. (Illustration No. 2.) young and pretty, and is in reality none Look to the left, first, (Illustration other than Sister Alessandra Bentivog­ No. 3.) We see let into the wall the lio, daughter of the kneeling Ippolita. tabernacle in which the Blessed Sacra­ These two ladies are supported by Saint ment is reserved. On either side of it Catherine with her wheel, and Saint stands a saint. Such saints as would Agnes with her white lamb, which bal­ grace any paradise. Saint Cecilia has ances very neatly the lamb of the Bap­ her head crowned with roses, Saint tist across the altar. Ursula is crowned with a golden dia­ If you pass thru this partition wall dem, for she was a royal Breton prin­ into the nun’s church, back of it you cess; a sword is thrust into her breast. will find preserved on that side, about Above the tabernacle, within a semi­ the nun’s High Altar, other life size circular lunette (Illustration No. 2) figures of saints, and among them an­ kneels Alessandro Bentivoglio, the donor other fine Saint Apollonia. (A copy of of the frescoes, magnificently arrayed in this picture could not be obtained.) his ducal robes. He holds his missal In the year 1525, Luini while in reverently in his hand, and about him Milan accidentally killed a man. The stand three saints; Saint Benedict with details of the affair are not known, but long white beard— for this Great Con­ the artist fled from the city pursued by vent is a Benedictine foundation; and the officers of the law. Some thirteen the two Saint Johns, the Baptist and miles north of Milan on the road to Evangelist, perhaps placed here in com­ Como is a small town called Saronno, pliment to Alessandro’s father, Gio­ nowadays famous for a certain sort of vanni. The Baptist has his little white gingerbread called Amaretti. In Sa­ lamb along with him. ronno was a pilgrimage church dedi­ Now turn to the right side of the altar cated to the Virgin, and known as the (Illustration No. 4.) In the place cor­ Sanctuary of the Holy Virgin. It pos­ responding to that occupied by the tab­ sessed the right of sanctuary for crimi- Illustration No. 5.

Saint Apollonia by Luini. This picture is on the choir wall in the Sanctuary of the Holy Virgin in a small town in Italy called Saranno. 412 THE JOURNAL, OF THE NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION. nals; once inside the sacred bounds no Saint Apollonia did not_ wholly per­ constable or bailiff could touch them. ish from the earth when thc_ fires of Here Luini not only found a safe refuge, Alexandria consumed her body "in the but employment as well, for the monks year 250. Fragments of her head and set him to work to decorate their choir teeth were rescued from the ashes by walls, paying him thirty cents a day, devout disciples, and today her relics together with a daily portion of food are scattered thruout Europe; stray bits and wine. This seems to us niggardly of her have even reached America. Her remuneration for a Luini, but he was head is in the ancient Basilica of Santa apparently amply satisfied, for he not Maria in Trastevere _at Rome, Cardinal only covered the choir and its chapels Gibbon’s parish church or titular, for with scenes from the life of Mary, but ' every Cardinal has his own church in before he left this asylum he painted for the Eternal City. Her arms are in an­ the monks as a gift, a Nativity, which other old Roman church, Saint Law­ was so beautiful that the good brothers rence, outside the walki and part of her exclaimed it was a pity Luini did not jaw is preserved in San Basilio also in murder more men. This Nativity has _Rome^ There are tee'th or pieces of them vanished from Saronno, but we can still in churches at Naples, Volterra, Bologna. see Luini’s scenes from the Virgin’s Antwerp, Brussels, Malines, Liege, and story on the choir wall, and, besides in five different churches in Cologne; these, in the choir apse are two charm­ and on this side of the Atlantic, as I ing life size figures of saints, one of have said, tfie celebrated pilgrimage them Saint Catherine; the other Saint ; church of Saint Anne de Beaupre, near Apollonia. (Illustration No. S.) Quebec, is said to possess a portion of If we had not already been to San .her .jaw. Maurizio we should think no Apollonia - -She._is_not needed now, this saint of could be more sweetly beautiful than Egypt, as in those hard old days of yore, this one who stands here gently con­ but let us hope her.relics are not entirely templating us, the forceps and tooth in unvisited. _ Doubtless many, a remote or one hand, the palm of martyrdom in the pious “toothache"she still helps to cure. other.. Her golden hair ripples down Surely it"should not be difficult for any from beneath a sort of turban, appro­ man or woman, with or without a tooth­ priate to an oriental saint. She is quite ache, to offer up a prayer or two to a as lovely as the Milan Apollonia but saint of such gracious,,gentle, charm as lacks her majesty. the Apollonia of Bernaadiiio Luini.