Martyred ( burned at the stake and pierced with a spear)
A friend of Ignatius and personal student of the apostle John, Polycarp served most of his life as the pastor of the church at Smyrna. He battled heretics like Marcion and advanced the gospel of Christ greatly, eventually suffering a heroic martyrdom in his eighties. He wrote at least one letter to the church of Philippi encouraging them in the faith and sending on copies of the letters of Ignatius.
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Polycarp (AD 69 – 155) was a Christian bishop of Smyrna. According to the Martyrdom of Polycarp, he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed to consume his body. Polycarp is regarded as a saint and Church Father in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism.
Both Irenaeus and Tertullian say that Polycarp had been a disciple of John the Apostle, one of Jesus's disciples. In On Illustrious Men, Jerome writes that Polycarp was a disciple of John the Apostle and that John had ordained him as a bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp is regarded as one of three chief Apostolic Fathers, along with Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch.
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