Saint Apollonia (Greek: Ἁγία Ἀπολλωνία; Coptic: Ϯⲁⲅⲓⲁ Ⲁⲡⲟⲗⲗⲟⲛⲓⲁ, pronounced [tiˈaɡiə ʔa.pɔlˈlo.ni.jə]) was one of a group of virgin martyrs who suffered in Alexandria during a local uprising against the Christians prior to the persecution of Decius.

[1] Ecclesiastical historians have claimed that in the last years of Emperor Philip the Arab (reigned 244–249), during otherwise undocumented festivities to commemorate the millennium of the founding of Rome (traditionally in 753 BC, putting the date about 248), the fury of the Alexandrian mob rose to a great height, and when one of their poets prophesied a calamity, they committed bloody outrages on the Christians, whom the authorities made no effort to protect.

They then erected outside the city gates a pile of wood and threatened to burn her alive if she refused to repeat after them impious words (either a blasphemy against Christ, or an invocation of the heathen gods).

Augustine of Hippo touches on this question in the first book of The City of God, apropos suicide: But, they say, during the time of persecution certain holy women plunged into the water with the intention of being swept away by the waves and drowned, and thus preserve their threatened chastity.

Although they quitted life in this wise, nevertheless they receive high honour as martyrs in the Catholic Church and their feasts are observed with great ceremony.

A later narrative mistakenly duplicated Apollonia, making her a Christian virgin of Rome in the reign of Julian the Apostate, suffering the same dental fate.

The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox (OCA)[5] Churches celebrate the feast day of St. Apollonia on 9 February, and she is popularly invoked against the toothache because of the torments she had to endure.

In some areas of Italy, Saint Apollonia is cast in the role of the tooth fairy, collecting children's fallen baby teeth while they sleep and leaving a gift in exchange.

[8] The Madonna Della Strada Chapel at Loyola University Chicago contains a stained glass window on the north wall depicting St.