ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY Saints celebrated on the 5th of January WELCOME! SAINT APOLLINARIS SYNCLETICA, VIRGIN Saint Apollinaris is also called Syncletika (from a senatorial family) because her father is definitely known to have had a high dignity in the state. She is also called Dorotheus because she put on a monk's habit, as will be explained further on, and this name was given to her by God. She was one of the many women who, in order to protect themselves from danger to her chastity or the better to serve God in seclusion, exchanged their feminine clothes for men's attire, which was all the more easily done in the Orient, since the feminine clothes are not very different from the masculine ones. Though church writers generally portray it as an abomination and despicable of God when the sexes change their clothes, they do excuse it in such exceptional cases, if it was done with the good intention either to avoid a grave danger or to be able to serve God al...