Monday, February 23, 2015 (Polycarp)

Monday, February 23, 2015 (Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, 156)

Hebrews 2:10-18

For the suffering he himself passed through while being put to the test enables him to help others when they are being put to the test. (Hebrews 2:18)

Today as we read the Letter to the Hebrews’ counsel to endure our sufferings, knowing that our Saviour himself underwent betrayal, persecution, and death, we remember Polycarp, a bishop in the early Church. According to two other prominent Church Fathers, Irenaeus and Tertullian, Polycarp was a follower of St. John. Echoing the message of today’s Bible passage, Polycarp wrote to the Jesus-followers in Philippi that “In Him, endurance went so far as to face even death for our sins; but God overruled the pangs of the grave, and raised Him up to life again.”*

Polycarp would become a martyr for his faith. The account of his death recounts that he prayed with confidence in his last moments. 

'O Lord God Almighty, Father of thy blessed and beloved Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have been given knowledge of thyself; Thou art the God of angels and powers, of the whole creation, and of all the generations of the righteous who live in thy sight. I bless thee for granting me this day and hour, that I may be numbered amongst the martyrs, to share the cup of thine Anointed and to rise again unto life everlasting, both in body and soul, in the immortality of the Holy Spirit. May I be received among them this day in thy presence, a sacrifice rich and acceptable, even as thou didst appoint and foreshow, and dost now bring it to pass, for thou art the God of truth and in thee is no falsehood. For this, and for all else besides, I praise thee, I bless thee, I glorify thee; though our eternal High Priest in Heaven, thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, by whom and with whom be glory to thee and the Holy Ghost, now and for all ages to come. Amen.'**

O God, the maker of heaven and earth, you gave your venerable servant, the holy and gentle Polycarp, boldness to confess Jesus Christ as King and Savior, and steadfastness to die for his faith: Give us grace, folllowing his example, to share the cup of Christ and rise to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.***

- Matthew Kieswetter

* Maxwell Staniforth and Andrew Louth, eds, Early Christian Writings (1968; repr., London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1987), 119. 

** Ibid., 129-130. 

*** Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2010), 239.