POLYCARP, p611-karp, one of the apos tolic Fathers of the Church, and styled by his disciple Irenmus a pupil of the apostle John: lb. Smyrna, probably about 69 A.D. d. there, 155. According to legend he was brought up by a noble Christian lady named Callisto, and was consecrated by Saint John as bishop of his native cig When the controversy about the time of Easter arose, he went to Rome to con fer with Anacletus, who then occupied that see; and though he did not succeed in recon ciling the differences between the Eastern and Western usages, the questions were discussed in the most friendly manner. During the perse cution under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus he was brought before the Roman proconsul at Smyrna and urged to revile Christ, but he re plied, ((Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me naught but good, and how could I then revile my Lord and Saviour?"' The people desired that he should be flung to the wild beasts, but he was sentenced to death by fire. The flames, however, according to the legend, played harmlessly around him like a swelling sail, emitting a sweet fragrance. When
the judges ordered one of the executioners to run him through with a sword, tfie flames were extinguished by the blood that flowed from the wound. Polycarp is one of the saints in the calendar of the Church, and the 26th of Janu ary has been consecrated to his memory. He wrote several epistles, which were current in the early Church, but have all perished except one addressed to the Philippian Church, ex horting them to the practice of their Christian duties and the maintenance of the purity of the faith. There is another writing of that age of which he is the subject, a relation of the manner of his death, written by the Church at Smyrna, of which he was the bishop, addressed to the church of Philadelphia. Both of these epistles may be read in an English translation in a volume, published by Archbishop Ware, con taining all the genuine remains of the Apostolic Fathers. Consult also Lightfoot, Fathers) (1891).