Church of Smyrna — The Martyrdom of Polycarp

Church of Smyrna — The Martyrdom of Polycarp, in a fresh translation from the Via Patrum library (fathers.saneapps.com). 0:00 Introduction 1:41 The Martyrdom of Polycarp 21:07 Sign-off The Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. 155) is the earliest account of a Christian martyrdom that survives outside the New Testament — a letter written by the church of Smyrna, who witnessed their bishop's death, to the church at Philomelium in Phrygia. Polycarp had been a disciple of the apostle John and bishop of Smyrna for decades when, in his old age, he was hunted down, arrested at a farmhouse, and brought before the proconsul in the stadium. Refusing to swear by the genius of Caesar or to curse Christ — 'Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong' — he was sentenced to the fire; the letter tells what the eyewitnesses saw there, and how the church gathered his bones, 'more precious than costly stones.' Read aloud in a fresh translation, with sentence-by-sentence read-along. Artwork: “H. Polycarpus van Smyrna, apostolisch vader, RP-P-1896-A-19368-1256” by Rijksmuseum — CC0 · Wikimedia Commons (title card and thumbnail). The complete works, text and audio, are free at the Via Patrum library: https://fathers.saneapps.com Follow Via Patrum on X: https://x.com/MrSaneApps Via Patrum — may you walk in the way of our fathers