Introduction – The Didache – Saint Clement of Rome – Saint Ignatius of Antioch – Saint Polycarp of Smyrna – The Epistle of Barnabas – Fragments of Papias – The Shepherd of Hermas – The Epistle to Diognetus – Saint Justin Martyr – Saint Irenaeus of Lyon – Tertullian – Saint Cyprian of Carthage

Saint Polycarp of Smyrna

Mosaic from the monastery of Hosios Loukas (11th century)

Saint Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna and one of the disciples of the Apostle Saint John the Evangelist. He enjoyed great prestige, admiration, and a reputation for holiness. Among his own disciples was the illustrious Saint Irenaeus of Lyon. He died a martyr at the age of eighty-six, burned at the stake for refusing to worship Caesar and the gods of the Romans.

A letter he wrote to the Philippians at the request of Saint Ignatius of Antioch — who also died a martyr and whom he had encountered on his way to martyrdom — has been preserved. There is also preserved a text representing the oldest known account of a Christian martyrdom outside the New Testament, written approximately in the year AD 156, a few months after the event it describes, and constituting an authentic testimony from those who personally witnessed the heroic death of Saint Polycarp.

Justification and Salvation

The doctrine of Saint Polycarp, like that of the Didache and the earliest Fathers, is a lucid exposition of the Catholic doctrine of justification, entirely free from both Pelagianism and Lutheranism. In this regard, he recalls that we are saved by grace and not by works:

“Though you have not seen Him, you believe in Him with joy unspeakable and full of glory — joy into which many desire to enter — knowing that by grace you have been saved, not of works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.” (Polycarp of Smyrna, Letter to the Philippians 1:3)

At the same time he teaches that faith alone does not save unless it is accompanied by obedience to the commandments and a manner of life worthy of God:

“The faith which was given to all of us is the mother of us all, if hope follows it and love of God and Christ and our neighbor goes before it.” (Polycarp of Smyrna, Letter to the Philippians 3:3)

“If we please Him in this present world, we shall receive also the future world, according as He has promised to us that He will raise us again from the dead, and that if we live worthily of Him, we shall also reign together with Him, provided only we believe.” (Polycarp of Smyrna, Letter to the Philippians 5:2)

“He who raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments, and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, false witness; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing.” (Polycarp of Smyrna, Letter to the Philippians 2:2)

The witness of Saint Polycarp thus joins that of all the Fathers examined in this work: not one of them teaches the Protestant doctrine of sola fide — that is, the doctrine that man is justified by faith alone, to the exclusion of works, sacraments, and cooperation with grace. This observation is not merely a Catholic argument: it is a fact that patristic scholarship within the Protestant world has been compelled to acknowledge. The Reformed theologian Thomas F. Torrance, in his study on the doctrine of grace in the Apostolic Fathers, noted that the vision of these early writers presents features that do not coincide with the soteriology of the Reformation. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, as Luther and Calvin formulated it, simply does not appear in Christian literature of the first and second centuries. What does appear, systematically and coherently in each of the Fathers we have examined, is the Catholic doctrine: faith as the inseparable beginning and foundation of charity, works, and the reception of the sacraments.

The Veneration of Saints and Relics

In the Martyrdom of Polycarp we find a most important testimony in favor of Catholic doctrine on several counts.

First, because it attests that in an era centuries prior to the Council of Nicaea, Christians rendered to Christ the worship of adoration — something denied by many Arian-type sects, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Second, because it lucidly distinguishes between the adoration due to God alone and the veneration due to martyrs and saints. From this understanding they proclaim that they adored Jesus Christ as the Son of God, while they venerated the saints and martyrs as models to imitate and examples of holiness:

“We shall never be able to forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of all the world, the righteous one suffering for the unrighteous, nor can we worship any other. For Him we worship as the Son of God; but the martyrs we love as disciples and imitators of the Lord, and rightly so, because of their matchless affection towards their own King and Master.” (Martyrdom of Polycarp 17:2–3)

The text also explicitly mentions the veneration of the relics of saints and martyrs, and the commemoration of their martyrdom.

“When the centurion saw the strife excited by the Jews, he placed the body in the midst and burnt it, as was their custom. So we afterwards took up his bones, as being more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more purified than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, whither, being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already finished their course, and for the exercising and preparation of those yet to walk in their steps.” (Martyrdom of Polycarp 18:1–3)

Detachment and Spiritual Poverty

Like Saint Ignatius, he denounces greed as the beginning of all evils, exhorting avoidance of disordered attachment to material goods:

“The love of money is the root of all evils. Knowing therefore that we brought nothing into the world, and that we can carry nothing out, let us arm ourselves with the armor of righteousness; and let us teach, first of all, ourselves to walk in the commandment of the Lord.” (Polycarp of Smyrna, Letter to the Philippians 4:1)