St. Polycarp

Who they were

Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, is the Church's great living link. He was a disciple of John the Apostle himself, and Irenaeus, who learned from Polycarp as a boy, describes the old man recounting his conversations with John and the others who had seen the Lord. Ignatius of Antioch, passing through in chains, wrote him one of the seven letters. Polycarp's own letter to the Philippians survives.

So does the account of his death. The Martyrdom of Polycarp is the earliest detailed martyrdom narrative we possess. Arrested at eighty six, brought into the stadium, and offered his life for one small curse of Christ, the old man gave the answer the Church has kept ever since: 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's details, his prayer that reads like a eucharistic prayer, the fire, the finish, sound like liturgy because the community that wrote it understood what it had witnessed.

Why people turn to St. Polycarp

The old faithful: the parishioner of eighty six years, the grandmother on her ten thousandth rosary. This is fidelity's long form. And catechists and grandparents, since he is what the handing on looks like across one lifetime.

How to ask their intercession

For someone in their ninth decade of faith, by name. And, borrowing his arithmetic, count your own years of being kept, and say them back as thanks.