Polycarp 5/5 Martyrdom of Polycarp 3

The Apostle John, author of the Gospel of John and Revelation, was a "pillar" of the church in Jerusalem, and later moved to Ephesus for the rest of his ministry. During the reign of the tyrannical Roman Emperor Domitian (A.D. 81-96), he was exiled to the nearby island of Patmos, where he wrote Revelation about A.D. 95. Upon the emperor's death he returned to Ephesus to resume his episcopacy and to write his Gospel about A.D. 96. The last remaining of the Twelve Apostles, John was nearly a hundred when he died about A.D. 96-100. (The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp was written within a decade of St. John's death.)
It was this last of the Twelve Apostles who ordained Polycarp bishop of Smyrna, a city north of Ephesus. When St. Ignatius passed through Smyrna on his way to martyrdom, Polycarp was perhaps no more than thirty-five. The Epistles of Ignatius were collected by Polycarp, a fact mentioned by Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, Athanasius, Theodoret, and other ancients.
After a lifetime of exemplary ministry, Polycarp was martyred at the age of eighty-six. This Epistle of the Smyrneans is the first example of Christian Martyrology.

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