Martyr without Teeth

I chose to talk about this saint because of my recent intercession to her while preparing for a root canal.  Who is to say if she listened to me.  All I know is that the procedure was not near as bad as I thought it was going to be and I am not feeling pain in my teeth any more!  Praise God!

St. Apollonia

Feast day: February 9
Birth:  ??
Death: 249
Patron against dental disease and toothaches
Rome

We learn the story of Apollonia from the bishop to the region, Dionysius.  He wrote about many people in Alexandria who were suffering during a local uprising against the Christians prior to the persecution of Emperor Decius.  He wrote of Apollonia:

"At that time Apollonia was held in high esteem. These men seized her also and by repeated blows broke all her teeth. 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]. Given, at her own request, a little freedom, she sprang quickly into the fire and was burned to death."

In his eyes, she was as much a martyr as the others, and as such she was revered in the Alexandrian Church. In time, her feast was also popular in the West.

Apollonia is popularly invoked against the toothache because of the torments she had to endure. She is represented in art with pincers in which a tooth is held.