My thanks to a friend for sharing with us these pictures which he took during a recent visit to one of best preserved paleo-Christian churches in Italy, the basilica of St Apollinaris in Classe, the ancient port of the city Ravenna. (In antiquity, Classe was directly on the sea, and important center for both commerce and the navy, but due to the silting-up of the Adriatic coast, it is now more than 5½ miles inland.) From the mid-6th to mid-8th century, Ravenna was the seat of the Byzantine governors of Italy, known as the Exarchs of Ravenna; several Christian monuments survive from this period, including two churches dedicated to St Apollinaris, an early bishop of the city traditionally said to have been a disciple of St Peter. The one here in Classe is the older of these two, originally built by a bishop named Ursicinus, who ruled from 532-36, and destined to be the burial place for the city’s bishops.
The narthex was added to the original brick façade in the 9th century, contemporary with the bell-tower shown below.
As in many early Byzantine churches, there are two small sacristies, one on either side of the apse, called “pastophoria”, a term which occurs in 1 Macc. 4, 38 and 57.
The circular bell-tower, which stands at over 124 feet, was also built in the 9th-century. Notice how the window space increases as it rises, which decreases the weight of each stage, making the structure seem even taller and lighter than it really is.
The mosaic in the apse is one of the best preserved examples of early Byzantine work in Italy, dating to the same period as the founding of the church. St Apollinaris is represented in the lower middle, wearing a stole and with his hands raised in prayer. At the very top, Christ Himself is shown, as He is in many early Christian images, with six sheep to either side of Him, emerging from the holy cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. These represent the twelve Apostles, of course, and the representation of Apollinaris in similar company is probably intended to remind the viewer of his close connection to the Apostolic era, and therefore also of the antiquity of the see of Ravenna.
In the lower band are shown (left to right): the Archangel Michael and the Apostle Matthew; the Roman Emperor Constantine IV with the clergy of Ravenna; four bishops of Ravenna; Abel, Melchisedek and Abraham (in a single panel, a reference to the mention of them in the Supra quae propitio of the Canon); St Gabriel and another, unidentified Saint.
The face of Christ is placed at the center of the Cross, with Moses and Elijah to either side; the three sheep (two to the right, one to the left) represent the Apostles Peter, James and John. This is therefore a symbolic representation of the Transfiguration, the moment at which Christ revealed His Divinity to His Apostles for the first time, foreshadowing the glory of His Resurrection, which can only come through the suffering of the Cross.
This altar in the middle of the nave is the place where
St Romuald (950 ca. - 1025 ca.), the great monastic reformer and founder of the Camaldolese Order, was praying when St Apollinaris appeared to him in a vision, and confirmed his call to the monastic life, as noted in the inscription on the back (2nd picture.)
An altar at the head of the left side aisle, dedicated to St Eleucadius, the successor-but-one of Apollinaris as bishop of Ravenna.
The tomb of Theodore, archbishop of Ravenna from 677-91.
A reproduction of the dedicatory inscription from the Church’s original consecration, recorded in Ravenna’s version of the Liber Pontificalis: “At the behest of the most blessed bishop Ursicinus, the exchequer Julian built, decorated and dedicated the basilica of the blessed priest Apollinaris, the consecrator being the most blessed bishop Maximian, on May 9, 549.”
