St Polycarp
On the 16th day of the Coptic month Meshir, we celebrate the life of St Polycarp the Peace-Maker.
Pangratios was born about 69 AD to a Christian family who received its Christian faith from the very Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Apostolic Ages, the young church survived and was strengthened by visits from the chosen Apostles and the Apostles’ disciples. With such a strong religious background, it is not difficult to understand how one could become such an ardent defender of the Orthodox Faith.
History tells us that Pangratios became a priest and was chosen by the bishop at the time as His Grace’s personal secretary. One of the first stories told about Father Pangratios and how he derived the name of "Polycarp" is as follows:
A drought had brought disaster throughout the countryside of Smyrna. The crops had failed, animals were dying, and disease was spreading due to the lack of clean water. The community would not be able to endure much longer. The bishop and his young priest, Pangratios, exhorted a three-day period of prayers and fasting to be observed by all Christians. Father Pangratios and as many as could manage, fasted the entire period. Finally on the third day, the clouds began to appear in the Heavens; that afternoon the rains came and refreshed the parched land.
Everyone rejoiced and it soon became known throughout the land that God had ended the drought in answer to the fast and prayer of Father Pangratios and the faithful Christians. Soon Father Pangratios was being called by a new name: Father "Polycarp" which means "many fruits."
Appointed to be Bishop of the See of Smyrna by the Apostles themselves, at the age of 40, he provides us with an important link in our long historical chain of Orthodox tradition clasping together the Apostles and the Second Century Church. The See of Smyrna’s present day location is Izmir, Turkey on the Aegean Sea in Asia Minor. St. Polycarp was soon to become: a bishop known for good works, a renowned defender of the Orthodox Faith against Gnosticism, and a noble martyr.
St Polycarp sat at the feet of St. John the Apostle. Documents written by St. Polycarp confirm that he knew others "who had seen the Lord in the flesh." It can only be imagined the lessons that St. Polycarp learned from these blessed men. But a glimpse of his knowledge obtained from them can be found within St. Polycarp’s teachings.
He taught that one should rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, to serve God in fear and truth and to always walk in His Commandments. St. Polycarp’s Letter to the Philippians is filled with these messages using quotes from the Holy Gospel, Acts, and the Epistles of the New Testament. It seems that this particular saint not only was a link between the Apostles and the Second Century Church but a faithful transmission of church doctrine as well.
St. Polycarp devoted much of his life to refuting Gnosticism. Being a strong defender of Orthodoxy, he admonished all heretics. It is written that St. Polycarp once met a heretic Marcion in the street. Marcion asked if St. Polycarp recognized him. St. Polycarp replied, "Indeed I do for you are the firstborn of Satan!"
St. Polycarp’s martyrdom is perhaps one of the most endearing. On a day in February about 155 AD this great bishop departed with the honor of the crown of martyrdom to the Heavenly Reward. His martyrdom is much more than a story; it is an actual recorded eyewitness account.
The year in which St. Polycarp was martyred was during a civil celebration in Smyrna and games were being held in the local amphitheater. The beasts had killed a Christian boy for his Christian beliefs. The crowd blamed St. Polycarp for installing these beliefs in the mind of the young boy and called for his death also.
The faithful, against his wishes, insisted he go to a nearby farm. St. Polycarp prayed night and day for all men and for all the churches throughout the world. One...