Scenes from the Life of St. Apollinaris, Stained Glass

Scenes from the Life of St. Apollinaris

13th century
Stained glass
Bay 22, Troyes Cathedral

The scenes are all taken from passages in the Passion of Apollinaris of Ravenna. Like most medieval windows, this one reads from bottom to top, so we will number them accordingly:

Roundel 7 This appears to be the burial of St. Apollinaris "outside the walls of Classe in a coffin made of stone, which they placed under the ground in fear of what the pagans might do" (Everett, Passion ¶ 35).
Half-round 6a Not far from the gates of Classe, the port of Ravenna, the saint receives his last, fatal beating from a pagan mob (Everett, Passion ¶ 34).
Half-round 6a As the saint says a prayer over the statue, it falls apart. It is not clear why in this panel the statue represents Apollo in human form (Everett, Passion ¶ 27).
Roundel 5 In exile in a city in Thrace, Apollinaris is attacked by a pagan mob who strip him and take him to the temple of Apollo, who is here represented by a statue of a bull. The bull may be due to a confusion owing to the name of the city's cruel pagan judge, "Taurus" (Everett, Passion ¶ 25-26).
Half-round 4b The vicarius of Ravenna orders Apollinaris confined to prison and deprived of food and water "so that he might just waste away." But an angel comes to comfort him through his ordeal, and he survives (Everett, Passion ¶ 21).
Half-round 4a Apollinaris resuscitates the daughter of a patrician named Rufus. In the story he finds her on her deathbed, but here she rises from what could be a sarcophagus. Rufus's hands are raised like those of Hereneus and the tribune, but in the story he becomes only a protector of the saint, not a convert. The daughter, however, does accept the faith and becomes a consecrated virgin (Everett, Passion ¶ 14-15).
Roundel 3 The "pagan pontiffs," enraged at the saint's dismissive comments about the gods, beat him with cudgels and cast him into the sea (Everett, Passion ¶ 9).
Half-round 2b Apollinaris cures the wife of the tribune of Ravenna, who had been bedridden with an incurable disease for many years. His pointing to Heaven refers to his colloquy with the tribune in which he explains the faith. The picture shows the wife's bare legs and covered trunk, but not her neck and head. Like Hereneus in 2a, the tribune holds his hands up in token of his amazed conversion (Everett, Passion ¶ 4-5).
Half-round 2a The saint's very first miracle: Just before reaching Ravenna, Apollinaris cures the blind son of the soldier Hereneus. He touches his eyes just as Jesus is shown to do in many images of the period and the boy "threw himself at the blessed Apollinaris's feet." The father stands in back, his hands in a modified orant position to signify his conversion to Christianity as a result of this miracle (Everett, Passion ¶ 3).
Roundel 1 St. Peter consecrates Apollinaris as a bishop, his rank symbolized by the mitre the Apostle is placing on his head and by the crozier both are holding. The crozier, mitre, and purple chasuble will identify the saint in all the subsequent pictures (Everett, Passion ¶ 2).

St. Apollinaris

Source: G. Freihalter via this page at Wikimedia Commons.