Nick Fawcett (devotional and reflective writer)

Part of the power of many ancient prayers, such as this one, taken from my book A Calendar of Classic Prayer, is the fact that those who first uttered them went on to give their life for the sake of their faith. One such is St Apollonius of Rome (d. 186), a second-century senator and martyr. Shortly after becoming a Christian his new-found faith was reported to the authorities by one of his slaves, and with Christianity still being outlawed in the Roman Empire, Apollonius was taken for trial before the Senate. As part of his defence, he is said to have declared: ‘if it were a delusion (as you assert) which tells us that the soul is immortal, and that there is a judgement after death and a reward of virtue at the resurrection, and that God is the Judge, we would gladly be carried away by such a lie as that, which has taught us to lead good lives awaiting the hope of the future even while suffering adversities’. Would you have shown such courage in his shoes? I doubt I would, for the result, as he must have known, was certain death. He was duly found guilty and beheaded.