Saint Apollnia is the patron saint of dentistry, also for those suffering from toothache. She was one of a group of virgin martyrs who suffered in Alexandria in about AD 250. A mob threatened to burn her alive if she did not deny her faith. She refused so the mob broke all her teeth and threw her into the fire. Miraculously the fire did not harm her. She ended up decapitated.
Her feast day in celebrated on February 9th. She is represented in art with pincers in which a tooth is held. She is one of the two partron saints of Catania, Sicily. In Germany she is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers that are singled out as the patron saints of daily life; Apollonia protecting against toothache. Her relics were preserved in the Church of St. Apollonia in Rome, which no longer exists. Her head went to a church in Trastevere, her arms to a Papal Basilica in Rome and parts of her jaw to St. Basil's. Other relics, sometimes a single tooth, to several churches in Belgium and France. One of the principal train stations in Lisbon is named for her. The Island of Mauritius was originally named for her in 1507 by Portugese navigators. In England, there are 52 known images of her that remain in various churches, mostly in stained gless.
