St Polycarp bishop of Smyrna Author:Polycarp Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VIII THE LETTER OF THE SMYRNEANS ON THE MARTYRDOM OF POLYCARP The Church of God sojourning at Smyrna to the Church of God sojourning1 at Philomelium,2 and ... more »to all the dioceses3 of the Holy Catholic Church4 in every place, mercy and peace and love of God the Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied.5 1 Cf. the Salutation of the Letter of Polycarp. 2 Identified by Hamilton with the modern Akshehr, a place in the plain to the north of the range north of the Pisidian Antioch. Cf. Ramsay, Hist. Geog. A. M. p. 140. A Bishop of Philomelium appears at the Council of Constantinople in 381, but between this and the date of the Letter there is no mention of it in Christian literature. 3 Orig. " parishes." This Lightfoot translates "brotherhoods " and Wake " assemblies." Neither gives the force of the word, which means " place or condition of sojourning": wherever a Christian Church "sojourned", there was a.para:cia or diocese. Cf. note on Letter of Polycarp, p. 28. 4 Cf. Ignat. ad Smyrn. viii., which is the earliest dated document in which the phrase Catholic Church appears. Cf. p. 20. 6 Cf. note on Salutation of the Letter of Polycarp. I. We write to you, brethren, the events which befell them that suffered martyrdom, and the blessed Polycarp, who, as it were, by his martyrdom set his seal upon the persecution,1 and put an end to it. For nearly all the preceding events came to pass in order that to us the Lord might once again give an example of the martyrdom which resembles the Gospel story.2 For he waited that he might be betrayed, just as was the Lord, to the end that we too may become imitators of Him, regarding not only what concerns ourselves but also what concerns our neighbours.3 For it is the part of true and constant love that a man should wis...« less