Holy Apostle and Evangelist John's web
Holy Apostle and Evangelist John
St. Polycarp of Smyrna
St. Polycarp of Smyrna
c. 69–c. 155
Disciple · Disciple at Ephesus
As a young man Polycarp sat at John's feet at Ephesus and was made by him bishop of Smyrna. He shepherded that church for upwards of sixty years and was burned and stabbed in its stadium around 155, at the age of eighty-six. His own disciple Irenaeus carried the chain one further link west into Gaul.
The Martyrdom of St Polycarp of Smyrna, c. 155–156
'Eighty-six years I have served Him.' The disciple of the apostle John is burned in the Smyrna stadium.
From the Life of St. Polycarp of Smyrna
Polycarp was born around the year sixty-nine, less than a generation after the Resurrection, and as a young man was a disciple of the Apostle John during John's last years at Ephesus.