Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor and a disciple, in his youth, of the Apostle John. Irenaeus of Lyon, who as a boy had heard Polycarp preach, writes that Polycarp 'had been taught by the apostles, and had conversed with many who had seen the Lord.' He is the principal living link between the apostolic age and the patristic.
He wrote a Letter to the Philippians that survives — a quiet, sober, pastorally focused work much occupied with the dangers of avarice and false teaching. Around the year 154, in his mid-eighties, he travelled to Rome to discuss with Pope Anicetus the date of Easter — a difference that remained unresolved without breaking communion.
Returning to Smyrna, he was arrested in the persecution under the emperor Antoninus Pius. Brought into the stadium, he refused to swear by the genius of Caesar with the famous reply: 'Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong: how then can I blaspheme my King, who saved me?' Tied to the stake, the flames refused to consume him; a soldier stabbed him through with a dagger. The Martyrdom of Polycarp is the oldest extant account of a Christian martyrdom outside the New Testament.