The
Encyclical Epistle of the church at Smyrna Concerning the Martyrdom of the Holy
Polycarp:
And while he
was praying, a vision presented itself to him three days before he was taken;
and, behold, the pillow under his head seemed to him on fire. Upon this,
turning to those that were with him, he said to them prophetically, “I must be
burnt alive.”
[This all
happened] that he might fulfill his special lot, being made a partaker of
Christ, and that they who betrayed him might undergo the punishment of Judas
himself.
Now as
Polycarp was entering into the stadium, there came to him a voice from heaven,
saying, “Be strong, and show thyself a man, O Polycarp!” No one saw who it was
that spoke to him; but those of our brethren who were present heard the voice.
For, on
account of his holy life, he was, even before his martyrdom, adorned with every
kind of good.
For the
fire, shaping itself into the form of an arch, like the sail of a ship when
filled with the wind, encompassed as by a circle the body of the martyr. And he
appeared within not like flesh which is burnt, but as bread that is baked, or
as gold and silver glowing in a furnace. Moreover, we perceived such a sweet
odor [coming from the pile], as if frankincense or some such precious spices
had been smoking there.
At length,
when those wicked men perceived that his body could not be consumed by the
fire, they commanded an executioner to go near and pierce him through with a
dagger. And on his doing this, there came forth a dove, and a great quantity of
blood, so that the fire was extinguished; and all the people wondered that
there should be such a difference between the unbelievers and the elect, of
whom this most admirable Polycarp was one, having in our own times been an
apostolic and prophetic teacher, and bishop of the Catholic Church which is in
Smyrna. For every word that went out of his mouth either has been or shall yet
be accomplished.
©2012 Kenute P. Curry. All rights
reserved.
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