Saint Polycarp

Bishop and Martyr

Feast Day

February 23

Life

69–155

Born

Smyrna, Asia Minor

Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor (modern Izmir, Turkey) and a disciple of John the Apostle. The principal early sources for his life are the testimony of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, who as a young man had heard him preach (Adversus Haereses III, 3, 4; Letter to Florinus, preserved by Eusebius); his own surviving Letter to the Philippians; the Martyrium Polycarpi, a circular letter from the Church of Smyrna to the Church of Philomelium, which is the earliest extant Christian martyrdom narrative independent of Acts; and Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History V, 20).

Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians, written about 110, transmits to a sister church the letters of his contemporary Saint Ignatius of Antioch (whose own letter to Polycarp is preserved). It is among the very earliest non-canonical Christian documents and contains explicit citations of New Testament texts.

About 154 Polycarp traveled to Rome to confer with Pope Anicetus on the date of Easter. The two could not agree, but they parted in peace, and Anicetus, in a sign of communion, allowed Polycarp to celebrate the Eucharist in his presence (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History V, 24).

Returning to Smyrna, Polycarp was arrested in the persecution under Antoninus Pius about 155-156. The Martyrium Polycarpi (chapter 9) records his answer to the proconsul who urged him to revile Christ and live: "Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?" He was condemned to be burned alive in the stadium of Smyrna, but, when the flames did not consume him (so the Martyrium relates), he was killed by the dagger. He died on a sabbath, traditionally identified as February 23, 155 or 156.