[3] The 10th century Byzantine hagiographer Symeon the Metaphrast stated that Apollinaris was the daughter of the emperor Anthemius, but it is more likely that her father was a consular prefect in Constantinople.
[5][8] It is probable that both the hagiographic association with the emperor of the Western Empire and her connection with Macarius of Alexandria (d. 390) were added to her story to enhance her spiritual authority.
[3] According to the tale, Apollinaris' parents wanted her to marry a wealthy man at a young age, but she refused and persuaded them into allowing her to remain unmarried.
Her parents permitted her to take a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she freed and dismissed all the slaves that accompanied her, except for an elderly man and a eunuch to prepare her tent, and bribed an old woman to procure a habit for her.
On her way back home, while visiting the Egyptian coast, she escaped her companions, "assumed the monastic habit, and cast aside her worldly dress, with all its ornaments".