Apollonia
Feast Day: February 9
Early Christian martyr whose teeth were destroyed, patron saint of dentists.
Patronage
dentists, tooth ailments, dental pain
Virtues & Traits
Biography
Apollonia was an elderly Christian virgin and deaconess in Alexandria, Egypt, who suffered persecution during the reign of Roman Emperor Decius around 249 AD. During violent riots against Christians, she was arrested and brutally tortured. According to the account by bishop Dionysius, her persecutors beat her face, broke all her teeth, and threatened to burn her alive. Rather than renounce her faith, Apollonia reportedly walked into the prepared fire and died. Her association with dental suffering stems directly from the specific torment of having her teeth destroyed. She became widely invoked for relief from toothaches and became the patroness of dentists, one of the few saints whose patronage derives from the precise nature of her martyrdom.