According to tradition, St Peter made Apollinaris Bishop of Ravenna. His miracles and preaching won converts and enraged the pagans. They beat him and drove him out. He was found half dead on the seashore and hidden by Christians. He was later made to walk on burning coals and expelled again.

The story says he kept returning to Ravenna. Each time he was tortured, imprisoned or exiled, once even to Greece, where the oracles fell silent in his presence. Under Vespasian he was caught at the city gate and savagely beaten. He lived seven days, foretelling that persecution would grow but the Church would triumph.

The Catholic Encyclopedia gives this account as tradition. It notes that his birthplace, probably Antioch, and whether he was one of the seventy-two disciples, are uncertain. It says he was Bishop of Ravenna for twenty-six years.

He was first burried at Classis, the ancient port of Ravenna, now choked with sand. In 549 his relics were translated to a vault under a church dedicated to him at Classis. Venantius Fortunatus (d. c. 600) exhorts the faithful to make pilgrimages to his tomb, and S. Gregory the Great (d. 604) ordered oaths in doubtful lawsuits to be taken before the tomb of S. Apollinaris Pope Honorius built a church under his name in Rome The apocryphal Acts are as dull as they are devoid of historical value.

One of the first great martyrs of the church. He was made Bishop of Ravenna by St. Peter himself. The miracles he wrought there soon attracted official attention, for they and his preaching won many converts to the Faith, while at the same time bringing upon him the fury of the idolaters, who beat him cruelly and drove him from the city. He was found half dead on the seashore, and kept in concealment by the Christians, but was captured again and compelled to walk on burning coals and a second time expelled. But he remained in the vicinity, and continued his work of evangelization. We find him then journeying in the province of Æmilia. A third time he returned to Ravenna. Again he was captured, hacked with knives, had scalding water poured over his wounds, was beaten in the mouth with stones because he persisted in preaching, and then, loaded with chains, was flung into a horrible dungeon to starve to death; but after four days he was put on board ship and sent to Greece. There the same course of preachings, and miracles, and sufferings continued; and when his very presence caused the oracles to be silent, he was, after a cruel beating, sent back to Italy. All this continued for three years, and a fourth time he returned to Ravenna. By this time Vespasian was Emperor, and he, in answer to the complaints of the pagans, issued a decree of banishment against the Christians. Apollinaris was kept concealed for some time, but as he was passing out of the gates of the city, was set upon and savagely beaten, probably at Classis, a suburb, but he lived for seven days, foretelling meantime that the persecutions would increase, but that the Church would ultimately triumph. It is not certain what was his native place, though it was probably Antioch. Nor is it sure that he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, as has been suggested. The precise date of his consecration cannot be ascertained, but he was Bishop of Ravenna for twenty-six years.