About this work
The Martyrdom of Polycarp is an early Christian account of the arrest, trial, death, and remembrance of St Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. Written as a letter from the church of Smyrna to fellow Christians, it presents martyrdom as faithful witness shaped by the Gospel rather than by reckless pursuit of death. Polycarp prays, faces the authorities calmly, refuses to deny Christ, and dies giving thanks to God. The work became a foundational Christian account of martyrdom, showing the Church honoring the martyrs while directing worship to Christ, for whom they suffered.
Historical context
Polycarp belonged to the generation after the apostles and served as bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor. The account of his martyrdom was sent by the Smyrnaean church to the church at Philomelium and to the wider Christian brotherhood, and Eusebius later preserved substantial portions of it in his Church History. The exact chronology and textual development have been discussed by scholars, but the work remains an exceptionally early witness to the Church’s memory of a bishop killed for refusing pagan sacrifice and denial of Christ. Ancient tradition closely linked Polycarp with the apostolic inheritance of Asia Minor.
Contents
The account begins with examples of other martyrs and contrasts faithful endurance with the rash behavior of one man who volunteered for arrest. Polycarp withdraws, prays for the churches, is betrayed, and receives his captors peacefully. At the stadium he refuses repeated demands to curse Christ and sacrifice, then faces execution by fire. The narrative describes his final prayer, death, and the Christians’ desire to honor his remains. It closes by explaining the proper remembrance of martyrs, praising Polycarp’s Gospel-shaped witness, and transmitting details about the letter’s copying and circulation.
Text & source details
Editions
- Edition
- Original Greek
- Reader label
- Ancient Greek
- Publication
- Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2 (1913)
- Date
- 1913
- Rights
- The underlying ancient Greek text and qualifying historical printed edition are public domain in the United States. The Open Greek and Latin / First1KGreek digital transcription and encoding used here are distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Edition
- Voices of the Fathers Modern English
- Reader label
- Modern English — VOTF
- Translator
- Voices of the Fathers editorial project
- Publication
- Voices of the Fathers
- Date
- 2026
- Rights
- Voices of the Fathers Modern English is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), to the extent copyright and related rights subsist in the translation and associated editorial material. Commercial reuse requires separate permission from Voices of the Fathers. The underlying ancient text and identified public-domain source editions retain their respective status.
- Edition
- Kirsopp Lake (1913)
- Reader label
- English — Lake (1913)
- Translator
- Kirsopp Lake
- Publication
- The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2 (1913)
- Date
- 1913
- Rights
- Public domain in the United States.
Text and edition sources
The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Voices of the Fathers Modern English, Voices of the Fathers, 2026, CC BY-NC 4.0.
Applies to: Modern English — VOTF Source websiteKirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1913).
Kirsopp Lake's 1913 edition/translation is public domain in the United States. Source websiteOpen Greek and Latin / First1KGreek, Martyrdom of Polycarp digital Greek transcription.
The underlying ancient Greek text and qualifying historical printed edition are public domain in the United States. The Open Greek and Latin / First1KGreek digital transcription and encoding used here are distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source websitePerseus Digital Library, canonical-greekLit, Kirsopp Lake English transcription of the Martyrdom of Polycarp.
The linked Perseus canonical-greekLit digital resource is distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise indicated by Perseus. Rights in the underlying historical text are separate from the digital repository license. Source websiteKirsopp Lake (1913), Martyrdom of Polycarp translation, as reproduced by Early Christian Writings.
The identified historical translation is public domain in the United States. Voices of the Fathers makes no claim here about separately copyrightable presentation or editorial material on the linked website. Source websiteSeumas Macdonald, The Martyrdom of Polycarp: Greek Text with Vocabulary and Commentary, revision 1.01 (2015).
open_licenseOverview research
Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2 (1913).
Kirsopp Lake's 1913 edition/translation is public domain in the United States. Source websiteOpen Greek and Latin / First1KGreek, Martyrdom of Polycarp digital Greek transcription.
The underlying ancient Greek text and qualifying historical printed edition are public domain in the United States. The Open Greek and Latin / First1KGreek digital transcription and encoding used here are distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source website