St. Polycarp

February 23 is the feast of St. Polycarp (c. 69-c. 155), the bishop of Smyrna — modern Izmir, on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor — and the last survivor of those who had known the apostles. A disciple of St. John, by tradition, he is the link between the apostolic age and the age of the martyrs. He visited Rome in 154 to confer with Pope Anicetus on the date of Easter, and the two parted in peace, each keeping his own usage. Irenaeus, his disciple, records that Polycarp could recall the words of John and the other eyewitnesses.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp, written by the church of Smyrna within a year of his death, is the earliest surviving account of a Christian martyrdom outside the New Testament. Condemned to be burned at the stake, he prayed aloud as the fire was lit: "I bless you, Father, because you have considered me worthy to share the cup of your Christ." The fire, the account says, did not touch him, and the executioner stabbed him instead; the blood that flowed put out the flame.

Polycarp is the patron of Smyrna, and the feast is one of the oldest in the calendar, attested in the Depositio martyrum of 354. The Eastern churches keep his feast on February 23, the Western on the same date since the 9th century. From Ephesus, where his master John had lived and was buried, to Rome, where Irenaeus heard him, the February 23 feast is the feast of the apostolic witness handed on.