Apostolic Fathers • Early Church
c. 69 – c. 155–160 • Bishop of Smyrna and martyr
Polycarp was an early bishop of Smyrna remembered through his Letter to the Philippians and the ancient Martyrdom of Polycarp. Later writers connected him with the apostle John and with Irenaeus, who remembered hearing him as a young man.
He forms an important bridge between the apostolic generation and second-century Christianity and offers an early witness to Christian ethics, Scripture and martyrdom.
Some details of later traditions about his direct apostolic contacts are dependent on sources written after his lifetime.
