The Martyrdom of Polycarp

At this time, when the greatest persecutions were throwing Asia into turmoil, Polycarp was perfected by martyrdom. I consider it most necessary to set his end down on record in this history, since the written account of it is still in circulation. [a] It is a letter written in the name of the church over which he himself presided, to the communities in every place, setting out what happened to him in these words: [b] “The church of God that sojourns at Smyrna, to the church of God that sojourns in Philomelium, and to all the communities of the holy and universal Church in every place: may mercy, peace and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied. We are writing to you, brothers, about the martyrs and about the blessed Polycarp, who put an end to the persecution, setting a seal on it, as it were, by his martyrdom.” [c]

After this, and before their account of Polycarp, they tell the story of the other martyrs, describing the steadfastness they showed against their pains. They say that the bystanders standing around were struck with amazement as they watched them: at one moment torn with whips down to the innermost veins and arteries, so that the hidden inward parts of the body, their entrails and their very limbs, lay open to view; at another, stretched out on sea shells and on sharp spikes; taken through every kind of punishment and torture; and at last handed over to the wild beasts to be eaten. They report that the most noble Germanicus was especially outstanding, overcoming by the grace of God the fear of bodily death that is born in us all. When the proconsul wanted to persuade him, pointing to his youth and begging him, young and in his prime as he was, to take pity on himself, he did not hesitate. He eagerly dragged the beast onto himself, all but forcing it and goading it on, so that he might be rid all the sooner of their unjust and lawless life. [e] At his glorious death the whole crowd, amazed at the courage of the God-loved martyr and at the virtue of the whole race of Christians, suddenly began to shout, “Away with the atheists! Let Polycarp be hunted down!” [f]

A very great uproar followed the shouting. And a certain Quintus, a Phrygian by race who had recently come from Phrygia, saw the beasts and the threats that came with them, and his courage failed him. He went soft, and in the end he gave up his salvation. [g] The account in the letter already mentioned shows that he had rushed to the court with others too hastily and without due caution; and when he was caught he gave everyone a plain example that people of this kind ought not to venture into danger rashly and recklessly. That was the end of the matter for them.

But the most admirable Polycarp, when he first heard of these things, remained undisturbed. He kept his character steady and unshaken and wanted to stay on in the city. But his friends begged him and urged him to slip away, and he was persuaded. He went out to a farm not far from the city and stayed there with a few companions, doing nothing night and day but persevering in prayer to the Lord, begging and pleading for peace for the churches throughout the whole world; for this had always been his custom. While he was praying, three days before his arrest, he saw in a vision at night the bedding under his head suddenly catch fire and burn up. He woke at this and at once explained what he had seen to those who were there, all but foretelling what was to come, and he told those around him plainly that he would have to give up his life by fire for Christ’s sake. Since those who were searching for him pressed the hunt with all their energy, they say that the affection and love of the brothers again forced him to move to another farm. Not long afterward his pursuers arrived there and seized two of the servant boys there. They tortured one of them, and through him they found Polycarp’s lodging. They came late in the evening and found him lying down in an upper room. He could have moved from there to another house, but he would not, and said, “God’s will be done.”

When he learned that they had come, as the account says, he went down and talked with them with a very bright and gentle face. Those who had not known the man before thought they were seeing a wonder, as they looked at his great age and at the dignity and steadiness of his bearing, and they wondered that there should be such eagerness to arrest an old man like this. He did not hesitate. He at once gave orders for a table to be set for them and invited them to share a generous meal. Then he asked them for one hour, so that he might pray without fear. They allowed it, and he stood and prayed, so full of the grace of the Lord that those who were there and heard him praying were astonished, and many of them now repented that so venerable and godly an old man was about to be put to death.

After this, the account of him continues the story word for word, more or less as follows: “When at last he had finished his prayer, after remembering everyone who had ever had dealings with him, small and great, famous and obscure, and the whole universal Church throughout the world, and the hour had come to set out, they sat him on a donkey and brought him into the city. It was a great sabbath. Herod, the chief of police, and his father Nicetes met him. They moved him into their carriage, sat down beside him and tried to persuade him, saying, ‘What harm is there in saying Caesar is Lord, and offering sacrifice, and saving your life?’ At first he did not answer; but when they kept on, he said, ‘I am not going to do what you advise me.’ [h]

Having failed to persuade him, they said terrible things to him and pulled him down in such haste that as he got down from the carriage he scraped the skin off his shin. But without turning around, as if nothing had happened to him, he went on eagerly and quickly, and was led into the stadium. The uproar in the stadium was so great that few could hear anything. But as Polycarp was entering the stadium, a voice came to him from heaven: ‘Be strong, Polycarp, and act like a man.’ No one saw who spoke, but many of our people heard the voice. [j]

When he was brought forward, there was a great uproar as they heard that Polycarp had been arrested. So when he came up, the proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. When he admitted it, the proconsul tried to persuade him to deny, saying, ‘Have respect for your age,’ and other things that go with it, the things they are in the habit of saying: ‘Swear by the Fortune of Caesar. Repent. Say, Away with the atheists.’ [k] But Polycarp looked with a stern face at the whole crowd in the stadium, shook his hand at them, groaned, looked up to heaven, and said, ‘Away with the atheists.’ When the governor pressed him and said, ‘Swear, and I will release you. Revile Christ,’ Polycarp said, ‘For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King, who saved me?’ [l]

When he kept on again and said, ‘Swear by the Fortune of Caesar,’ Polycarp answered, ‘If you vainly imagine that I will swear by the Fortune of Caesar, as you put it, and pretend not to know who I am, hear it plainly: I am a Christian. And if you want to learn the teaching of Christianity, name a day and listen.’ The proconsul said, ‘Persuade the people.’ Polycarp said, ‘You I have thought worthy of an answer, for we have been taught to give rulers and authorities appointed by God the honor that is due to them, so far as it does us no harm. But as for those people, I do not consider them worthy that I should make my defense to them.’ [m] The proconsul said, ‘I have wild beasts. I will throw you to them unless you repent.’ He said, ‘Call them. For us, repentance from the better to the worse is impossible; but it is a good thing to change from what is harsh to what is just.’ He said to him again, ‘If you despise the beasts, I will have you subdued by fire, unless you repent.’ Polycarp said, ‘You threaten a fire that burns for an hour and is soon put out, because you do not know the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, which is kept for the ungodly. But why are you waiting? Bring whatever you like.’

As he said these things and many more, he was filled with courage and joy, and his face was full of grace. Far from collapsing in dismay at what was said to him, it was the proconsul, on the contrary, who was astounded. He sent his herald to proclaim three times in the middle of the stadium, ‘Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian.’ When the herald had said this, the whole crowd of Gentiles and Jews who lived in Smyrna shouted with uncontrollable fury and in a loud voice, ‘This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, the destroyer of our gods, who teaches many not to sacrifice or to worship!’ Saying this, they shouted and asked Philip the Asiarch to let a lion loose on Polycarp. He said that he was not allowed to, since he had finished the beast hunts. Then they decided to shout with one voice that Polycarp should be burned alive. [n] For the vision shown to him about his pillow had to be fulfilled, when he saw it burning while he prayed, and turned and said prophetically to the faithful who were with him, ‘I must be burned alive.’

All this happened with great speed, faster than it can be told. The crowds at once gathered logs and brushwood from the workshops and the baths, the Jews being especially eager to help with it, as is their custom. When the pyre was ready, he laid aside all his outer clothes, loosened his belt, and tried to take off his shoes as well. He had not done this himself before, because every one of the faithful was always eager to be the first to touch his skin; for he had been honored in every way for his good life even before his hair was gray. At once the things made ready for the pyre were set around him. When they were about to nail him as well, he said, ‘Leave me as I am. He who grants me to endure the fire will also grant me to stay on the pyre without flinching, without the security of your nails.’ So they did not nail him, but tied him. With his hands put behind him he was tied, like a choice ram taken from a great flock, a whole burnt offering acceptable to God Almighty, and he said,

‘Father of your beloved and blessed Child Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the knowledge of you, God of angels and powers and of all creation, and of the whole race of the righteous who live in your presence: I bless you, because you have counted me worthy of this day and this hour, to take a share among the number of the martyrs in the cup of your Christ, for the resurrection to eternal life of soul and body in the incorruption of the Holy Spirit. [o] Among them may I be received before you today as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, just as you, the God who does not lie, the true God, prepared it beforehand, revealed it beforehand, and have now fulfilled it. For this reason, and for all things, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Child, through whom be glory to you, with him, in the Holy Spirit, both now and for the ages to come. Amen.’

When he had sent up the Amen and finished his prayer, the men in charge of the fire lit it. A great flame blazed out, and we to whom it was given to see saw a wonder; and we were preserved to report to the others what happened. For the fire took the shape of a vault, like a ship’s sail filled by the wind, and made a wall around the martyr’s body. He was in the middle of it, not like flesh burning, but like gold and silver refined in a furnace. And we caught a fragrance as sweet as the breath of frankincense or some other precious spice. At last, when the lawless men saw that his body could not be consumed by the fire, they ordered a confector to go up to him and plunge in a sword. [q] When he did this, so great a quantity of blood came out that it put out the fire, and the whole crowd marveled that there should be such a difference between the unbelievers and the chosen. One of these chosen was this man, the most admirable teacher of our times, apostolic and prophetic, bishop of the universal Church in Smyrna. For every word that came from his mouth has been fulfilled and will be fulfilled. [r]

But the jealous and envious Evil One, the enemy of the race of the righteous, saw the greatness of his martyrdom and his blameless life from the beginning, and saw him crowned with the crown of incorruption, carrying off a prize no one could dispute. So he saw to it that we should not get even his poor body, although many wanted to take it and to have a share in his holy flesh. So some people put Nicetes, Herod’s father and Alce’s brother, up to petitioning the governor not to give up his body. He said, ‘Otherwise they will abandon the crucified one and begin to worship this man.’ They said this at the prompting and urging of the Jews, who also kept watch when we were about to take him from the fire. They did not know that we can never forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those who are saved, nor worship any other. [s] Him we worship, because he is the Son of God; but the martyrs we love as they deserve, as disciples and imitators of the Lord, for their unsurpassed devotion to their own King and Teacher. May we too become their companions and fellow disciples!

So the centurion, seeing the contentiousness of the Jews, set the body in the middle and burned it, as is their custom. And so we afterward took up his bones, more precious than costly stones and finer than gold, and laid them where it was fitting. There, as far as we are able, the Lord will let us gather in gladness and joy to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom, in memory of those who have already fought the contest, and for the training and preparation of those who are yet to fight it. Such is the story of the blessed Polycarp. Counting those from Philadelphia, he was the twelfth to be martyred in Smyrna; but he alone is remembered more than the others by everyone, so that even the Gentiles talk about him in every place.” [t]

Such was the end granted to the wonderful and apostolic Polycarp, as the brothers of the church of Smyrna recorded the story in their letter, which we have mentioned. In the same document about him other martyrdoms were added, which took place in the same city of Smyrna at the same period of time as Polycarp’s martyrdom. Among them Metrodorus, who seems to have been a presbyter of the Marcionite error, was handed over to the fire and put to death. [u] A celebrated martyr of that time was a man named Pionius. His confessions one by one, the boldness of his speech, his defenses of the faith before the people and the rulers, his public addresses of instruction, his greetings to those who had given way under the trial of the persecution, the encouragement he offered in prison to the brothers who came to visit him, the tortures he endured on top of these, and after them the agonies and the nailings, his endurance on the pyre, and his death after all his extraordinary sufferings: all this the document about him contains in the fullest detail. We refer those who wish to read it to that document, which is included in the martyrdoms of the ancients that we have collected. [v] Next, there are also records in circulation of others who were martyred at Pergamum, a city of Asia: Carpus and Papylus, and a woman named Agathonice, who after many illustrious confessions were gloriously perfected. [w]