Patron saint of dentists and against dental problems – Saint Apollonia

Saint Apollonia was born about the year 200.  She was one of a group of virgin martyrs who suffered in Alexandria during a local uprising just before the persecution of Decius. According to church tradition, her torture included having all of her teeth violently pulled out or shattered.

During festivities to commemorate the millennium of the founding of Rome, people formed a mob Alexandria, when a poet prophesied a disaster.  A Christian man and woman, Metras and Quinta, were seized and killed by the mob.  The houses of several other Christians were pillaged.

Apollonia, a deaconess was important in her community.  Men seized her too and with repeated blows broke all her teeth. Outside the city gates, they build a pile of wood and threatened to burn her alive if she didn’t renounce her faith. At her request, she was given a little freedom. She sprang quickly into the fire and was burned to death in 249.

Apollonia and a whole group of early martyrs didn’t wait for the death they were threatened with.  Either to preserve their chastity or because they had to renounce their faith or die, they voluntarily embraced the death prepared for them.  Some thought this was too much like suicide. Saint Augustine of Hippo touches on this question in the first book of The City of God.  If during a persecution holy women plunged into the water with the intention of being swept away by the waves and drowned, to preserve their threatened chastity. Although they quit life, they receive high honor as martyrs in the Catholic Church.  It may or may not be the case this was the command of God, not erroneously but through obedience, as we must believe in the case of Samson? When, however, God gives a command and makes it clearly known, who would account obedience there to a crime or condemn such pious devotion and ready service?

She was revered in the Alexandrian Church, as a martyr.  She is popularly invoked against the toothache because of the torments she had to endure. She is popularly regarded as the patroness of dentistry and those suffering from toothache or other dental problems. In some areas of Italy, Saint Apollonia is seen in the role of the tooth fairy, collecting children’s fallen baby teeth while they sleep and leaving a gift in exchange. Her image is the side support of the arms of the British Dental Association.

Patron saint of brewers, brides, florists, midwives, newlyweds, and of the village of Pescia, Italy – Saint Dorothea of Caesarea

It is believed that Dorothea of Caesarea was born in 279.  The earliest records of her mention only three basic facts: the day of martyrdom, the place where it occurred, and her name and that of Theophilus. 

This is the oldest version of the legend, was Dorothea of Caesarea was persecuted during the persecution of Diocletian.

She was a beautiful young virgin who had pledged her life to celibacy and prayer, but was ordered to marry a pagan and offer sacrifices to the false gods. She refused and was tried and convicted of being a Christian, and the local prefect named Sapricus had her put to death.

According to the legend, the lawyer presiding at her trial was named Theophilus. She was brought before the prefect.  She was tried, tortured, and sentenced to death. On her way to her execution in 311, the pagan lawyer Theophilus said to her in mockery: “Bride of Christ, send me some fruits from your bridegroom’s garden.” Before she was executed, she asked a six-year-old boy, to deliver Theophilus her headdress.  It was filled with a heavenly fragrance of roses and fruits. Immediately, Theophilus confessed to being a Christian.  He was put on the rack and killed. 

Saint Dorothy was considered to be the 15th of the Holy Helpers. and in arts she occurred with Saints Barbara, Catherine, and Margaret, forming with them a quartet of female virgin martyrs called “The four Capital Virgins”.Dorothy of Caesarea is regarded as the patroness of gardeners, because of the wreath of roses.  

On her February 6 feast day, trees are blessed.  Saint Dorothy is also the patroness of brewers, brides, florists, midwives, newlyweds, and of the village of Pescia, Italy.

Patron saint for rape victims, torture victims, martyrs, nurses, and against breast cancer – Saint Agatha

St Agatha (231-251 A.D.) was born in Sicily into a wealthy and important family. At a young age, she made the decision to devote herself to Christ, resisting every offer of marriage.

Struck by her beauty and wealth, a magistrate named Quintian desired to marry her. He plotted to use his political power to force her hand and threatened to prosecute her for the crime of Christianity unless she accepted his sexual advances. When she refused, he forced her into a brothel. Even there, she refused to relinquish her chastity. Furious, Quintian imprisoned and tortured Agatha, ordering her breasts to be cut off.

Upon this barbaric treatment, God sent St. Peter the Apostle to Agatha in a vision, and he healed her wounds. St. Agatha’s torture continued until an earthquake caused her captors to flee, and she died shortly after.

St. Agatha is the patroness of rape victims, torture victims, martyrs, nurses, and against breast cancer. She is one of the seven women, besides the Virgin Mary, mentioned by name in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Her feast day is February 5th.

Patron saint for the protection of trees and against cattle diseases – Saint Berlinda of Meerbeke

Saint Berlinda was a Benedictine nun of noble descent. According to legend she was a niece of Saint Amandus and was disinherited by her father, Count Odelard after he became sick with leprosy. He believed she would not take care of him.

Berlinda fled to a convent in Belgium and became a nun. After her father died, she became a hermit where her father had been buried. She died in 702. Her tradition states that she spent her life helping the poor and suffering.

Saint Catherine de’ Ricci

Catherine de’ Ricci was born April 23, 1522, Alessandra Lucrezia Romola de’ Ricci in Florence to Pier Francesco de’ Ricci and his wife, Caterina Bonza.  Catherine’s mother died soon after her birth.  When Catherine was 6, her father enrolled her in a school run by a monastery of Benedictine nuns.  Catherine’s aunt was the abbess. Catherine was a very prayerful person from a very young age. There she developed a lifelong devotion to the Passion of Christ. After a short time outside the monastery, she entered the Convent of St Vincent in Prato, Tuscany, a cloistered community of religious sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic, who followed the strict regimen of life she wanted.
In May 1535 she received the religious habit from her uncle, Timoteo de’ Ricci, who was confessor to the convent.  She took the religious name of Catherine, after Catherine of Siena.
Catherine’s time as a novitiate was difficult. She would experience visions.  This made it seem to others that she was asleep during prayer services.  She dropped plates and food so much her community began to question her competence, and maybe her sanity. Eventually, the other Sisters became aware of the spiritual reason for her behavior. She became the prioress by the time she was 30. 
She is reported to have been a nun with visions, states Constance Classen, who miraculously held baby Jesus dressed in swaddling clothes. 

As the prioress, Catherine was an effective and admired administrator. She was an expert on religion, administration, and management.  She advised princes, bishops, and cardinals. She corresponded with three figures who were destined to become popes: Pope Marcellus II, Pope Clement VIII, and Pope Leo XI. She gave advice both in person and through letters.
Catherine’s meditation on the Passion of Christ was so deep, sometimes she bled as if scourged. She also bore the Stigmata. During times of deep prayer, like Catherine of Siena, her patron saint, a coral ring representing her marriage to Christ, appeared on her finger.

Some stories say she wore an iron chain around her neck, engaged in extreme fasting and other forms of penance and sacrifice for souls in Purgatory.

One of the miracles documented for her canonization was her appearance many hundreds of miles away from where she was physically located in a vision to Philip Neri, a resident of Rome, with whom she had maintained a long-term correspondence. Neri was very reluctant to discuss miraculous events, confirming the event

Catherine lived in the convent until her death in 1590 after an illness. Her remains are visible under the altar of the Minor Basilica of Santi Vicenzo e Caterina de’ Ricci, next to her convent. de’ Ricci was beatified by Pope Clement XII in 1732, and canonized by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746