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.