Bio

 

Polycarp was said to have begun life as a disciple of St. John, and a close friend of St. Ignatius of Antioch. As bishop of Smyrna, he was seen as a moral authority, and he worked to help different groups of early Christian thinkers understand and interpret the new Christian faith, debating, writing, and teaching to do so. He worked with the Western Church in their debate over when to celebrate Easter, which was a very important, divisive topic to the early Church. He approached this discussion with mercy and respect.

 
   When St. Ignatius was imprisoned and on his journey to the place of his martyrdom, he stopped to visit with his good friend, Polycarp, and even wrote him a personal letter later.
   In a letter to the Church of Philippi, Polycarp also helped to support the writings and ideas of St. Paul as those of authority. Paul’s ideas were still widely controversial at the time, and many Christian offshoot groups were trying to claim his ideas for their faith instead. Polycarp helped situate Paul’s ideas in Church Tradition, and may have even written some of the letters that are now attributed to Paul. This letter to Philippi was one of the first to quote Gospel passages, also, instead of merely relying on oral tradition.

 
   Though Polycarp avoided martyrdom as well as he could (instead of actively seeking it out as some did), when he was 86 years old (or perhaps slightly older), a demand for his arrest was put out. He went to hide and pray for a short time, during which he had a dream that his pillow turned to flames, which he interpreted to mean that he would be burned alive.

   When two boys who worked on the farm on which Polycarp was hiding were tortured, they gave his position away. Polycarp fed and prayed with the soldiers who were arresting him, causing them to wonder why they were bothering arresting such a holy old man. They and the proconsul begged him to say “away with the atheists (the Roman name for Christians)”, but when Polycarp faced the crowd in the arena and said this, they knew he was not referring to the Christians. They continued to beg him, and so he was tied to be burned at the stake.

    As the fire was lit, Polycarp prayed aloud, and witnesses soon saw the fire burn in an arch around him instead of burning him. He seemed to glow gold instead. Angered and frightened, they instead began to stab him, and his blood completely put out the fire.
   His body was burned and his bones taken and buried by other Christians.