St. Polycarp of Smyrna (c. 69-155)

Bishop of Smyrna, taught by the Apostle John and teacher in his turn of St Irenaeus. In old age he travelled to Rome to talk with its bishop about the date of Pascha, and the two parted in peace keeping different customs, which the Church has remembered ever since as the way a disagreement about practice should end. Arrested at eighty-six and told to curse Christ to save himself, he answered: eighty-six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my King who saved me? The account of his death, written by his own church to another, is the oldest martyrdom narrative outside the New Testament, and the first place the Church is seen keeping the day of a martyr’s death as his birthday. Feast: February 23.