Holy Priest-Martyr Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna

Life

This great apostolic man was born a pagan. Saint John the Theologian brought him into the Christian faith and baptized him. In early childhood Polycarp was left an orphan, and according to a certain vision, he was taken in by a noble widow, Callista, who raised and educated him as her own son. From childhood Polycarp was pious and merciful. He took care to support with his means Saint Bucolus, the bishop of Smyrna at that time, as well as the holy Apostles John and Paul, whom he knew and heard. Saint Bucolus ordained him presbyter and, before his death, designated him as his successor in Smyrna. The apostolic bishops who gathered for the burial of Bucolus consecrated Polycarp as bishop. From the very beginning Polycarp was endowed with the gift of wonderworking. Thus he cast out an evil spirit from the servant of a certain prince and stopped a terrible fire in Smyrna through prayer. Seeing this, many pagans regarded him as one of the gods. He brought rain in time of drought, healed diseases, had clairvoyance, prophesied, and so forth. He suffered in the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Three days before his death, Saint Polycarp prophesied: "In three days I shall be burned in fire for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ!" And when on the third day soldiers seized him and led him to trial, he exclaimed: "May the will of my Lord God be done!" When the judge counseled him to renounce Christ and acknowledge the Roman gods, Polycarp said: "I cannot exchange the better for the worse!" The Jews in particular hated Polycarp and pressed for him to be burned. When they placed him bound upon the pyre, he prayed to God for a long time. He was very old, and grey-haired, and radiant as an angel of God. And all the people saw how the flame enveloped him, but did not touch him. Terrified by this phenomenon, the pagan judges commanded the executioner to pierce him through the flame with a spear. And when he was pierced, an exceedingly great quantity of blood flowed out of him, so that the entire fire was extinguished, and his body remained whole and unburned. At the instigation of the Jews the judge commanded that the dead body of Polycarp be burned according to the Hellenic custom. And so the impious burned dead the one whom alive they could not burn. Saint Polycarp suffered in the year 167 on Holy Saturday.

From the Hymn of Praise

### SAINT POLYCARP