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The saints

St Polycarp

An old bishop in a stadium, given one last chance to curse Christ.

Feast: 23 February · about 69 to about 155 · Smyrna, Asia Minor

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The ruins of the ancient agora of Smyrna in Izmir, Turkey: a row of standing columns and arches.

31774, 2012. Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

Home / The saints / St Polycarp

The stadium at Smyrna, about 155

An old bishop walks into the stadium at Smyrna, where a great crowd is waiting.1

“Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man”

The voice from heaven, as the eyewitnesses recorded it1

The proconsul urges him to curse Christ and go free.1

Polycarp had known people who knew the apostles. He was not about to deny the Lord now.

01St Polycarp

Eighty-six years

“Fourscore and six years have I served Him, and he has done me no harm. How then can I curse my King that saved me.”

Polycarp, to the proconsul1

It was decided, therefore, to burn him alive.1

The eyewitnesses wrote that the fire made a wall round him like the sail of a ship filled by the wind.1

02St Polycarp

A letter from Smyrna

The story of his death comes down to us in the Letter of the Smyrnaeans, written by his own church.1

Polycarp had heard St John and others who had seen the Lord, and he would tell what they had said.1

The ruins of the ancient agora of Smyrna in Izmir, Turkey: a row of standing columns and arches.
The ancient agora of Smyrna, the city where Polycarp was bishop. 31774, 2012. Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Polycarp”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.