A Bishop in the Lycus Valley
Claudius Apollinaris was bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161 to 180). Hierapolis stood in the Lycus valley, a few miles from Laodicea and Colossae, and its church went back to the days of the apostles. Paul mentions it in his letter to the Colossians, commending Epaphras for his labor on behalf of the believers there. Earlier in the second century one of its leaders had been Papias, who collected sayings of those who had known the apostles.
“For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.”COLOSSIANS 4:13 · KJV
By Apollinaris's day the churches of the region were led by a single bishop in each city, an arrangement that had developed after the apostles and later became one of the marks of the catholic order. Almost nothing is known of his personal life. What survives is his reputation and a list of his books.
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