The Eucharistic Martyrdom of St. Polycarp of Smyrna
The final prayer of St. Polycarp of Smyrna, when he is about to be set on fire and burned alive, is comparable to early eucharistic prayers in both its form and content. The eucharistic language and images of the prayer are also reminiscent of the way that St. Ignatius of Antioch described his own anticipated martyrdom several decades earlier. In both cases, the crucified and risen Christ is actively present and at work, in the flesh, to reveal the Father and bestow the Holy Spirit, and to unite the Church in His own Body, unto life everlasting.
St. Polycarp, the second century Bishop of Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey), is surely one of the most significant figures of the early church. A “father of the Christians” in his day (M.Pol. 12.2), he is remembered and honored for his faithful witness in both life and death (M.Pol. 13.2; 19.1; 22.1).
He is an apostolic man, rightly numbered among the “Apostolic Fathers,” and providing an important link between the first and second centuries. He was a respected peer and personal confidant of St. Ignatius of Antioch, and was held in high regard by St. Irenaeus of Lyons. The latter man recalls, from his own childhood, that St. Polycarp had “reported living with John and the rest of the Apostles who had seen the Lord,” and that “he remembered their words,” so that he was able to proclaim the teaching and the miracles of Christ “in harmony with the Scriptures,” as he had learned these things from eyewitnesses of the Gospel (B.H. Streeter, The Primitive Church, 1929).
As Bishop Polycarp is important in his own right, so is the account of his martyrdom among the most significant documents of the patristic age. Its popularity is not hard to understand, since it offers a dramatic narrative, well told and gripping in its details, and full of pathos. The courage of the martyr is undeniable, and the theological interpretation of his death is profound. The Martyrdom of St. Polycarp is typically dated between A.D. 155 and 170, on the assumption that it was written within a few years of the actual martyrdom (M.Pol. 21).
The key to interpreting the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp is discerning what it means to undergo a “martyrdom according to the Gospel.” The document itself describes what such a death entails (M.Pol. 1.1–2; 2.1). It is one that is received and suffered in accord with the Word and Will of God, as the Lord was crucified and rose again “according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3–4). As such, it is endured in steadfast faith by the grace of God, and it is borne in conscientious love for others. It is also “an ecclesial event, for through the remembrance of the martyr the Christian community faithfully trains itself for future struggles” (William C. Weinrich, Spirit and Martyrdom, 175). A stated purpose of the Martyrdom is to commend the example of St. Polycarp, that others should follow in his footsteps “according to the Gospel,” and thereby imitate Christ Jesus as “partners and fellow disciples” of the faithful martyrs (M.Pol. 17.3; 19.1; 22.1).
St. Polycarp lives and dies according to the Will and Word of God. He is faithful and steadfast in doing so because Christ and His Spirit are with him in life and death. He follows as a disciple in the image and likeness of his Lord because Christ, in the flesh, has given Himself to St. Polycarp in the Eucharist. What is more, as Bishop Polycarp has administered the Sacrament in the remembrance of Jesus, according to the Lord’s institution, so does he go to his martyrdom in the same obedience of faith. The Eucharist shapes and defines his pastoral office and ministry, as a father and teacher of Christians, and as a proponent of the true worship of Christ in opposition to pagan idolatry, even unto death (M.Pol. 12.2; 16.1).
Martyrdom according to the Gospel, therefore, is martyrdom according to the Eucharist. Christ is present with Bishop Polycarp in his martyrdom, because the same Lord Jesus Christ is present in and with His Church in the Eucharist. The martyr is handed over to his death, as the Body and Blood of Christ are received and handed over from God, in accordance with the Word of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:23–25). The martyr endures in steadfast faith, just as the Sacrament is efficacious and salutary in its benefits, because Christ the Lord, crucified and risen, is actively present and at work with the fruits of His Passion (St. Matt. 26:26–28; St. Luke 24:30–35). The martyr lives and dies in faith toward God and in love for the neighbor, as the Holy Communion is celebrated with thanksgiving to God and is distributed as divine Charity for His Church (1 Cor. 11:17–34; Acts 2:42–47; 4:32–35). So it is that St. Polycarp endures unto the end, the Lord is glorified in him, and the Church catholic in Smyrna and beyond is strengthened and sustained by his martydom (M.Pol. 16.2; 19.1–2).
The Eucharist is the heart and center of the pastoral ministry, and of the Church’s Life in Christ, because it is in the Sacrament that Christ reveals the Father in Himself, bestows the Spirit that He Himself has received from the Father, and unites the Church with God in His own Body of flesh and blood, crucified and risen from the dead. As Bishop Polycarp has proclaimed the death of Christ in the Eucharist, so now, the Passion of Christ is manifested in the eucharistic suffering and death of His servant. The martyrdom of St. Polycarp is not the termination of his eucharistic ministry, but its culmination and perfection. He thus fulfills “his own lot (klēron), becoming a partner (koinōnos) of Christ” (M.Pol. 6.2; 1 Pet. 5:1–4).
As a true and faithful bishop, St. Polycarp teaches, confesses, and practices the true religion and worship of the true and only God, which sets him in opposition to all false religion and worship (M.Pol. 12.2). Consequently, he is confronted with the choice of either offering incense to the emperor, or becoming incense to the Lord; either sacrificing to pagan gods, or becoming a sacrifice to the one true God (M.Pol. 3.2; 8.2; 9.2; 14.2; 15.2; 16.1; 19.2).
He is bound to the wood, not nailed (M.Pol. 13.3; 14.1), like Isaac, who was bound to the wood by his father Abraham (Genesis 22:9). And the Bishop of Smyrna becomes an acceptable whole burnt offering, a choice ram (M.Pol. 14.1), and so a “type” of Christ. He acts “like a man” (M.Pol. 9.1), or, more to the point, he acts like the Man, Christ Jesus. So do the fire and aroma that attend his death (M.Pol. 15.1–2) confirm that his martyrdom is “according to the Gospel,” offered and received in the image and likeness of Christ. The fire does not destroy the martyr’s body, but by the fire of the Holy Spirit his body and his life are transformed into a holy sacrifice (Rom. 12:1–2), just as gold and silver are purified by fire (Mal. 3:3). So, too, the Christians who witness St. Polycarp’s death perceive, not the smell of burning flesh, but “such strong fragrance, like a waft of incense or some other of the precious spices” (M.Pol. 15.2; 2 Cor. 2:14–16).
In his death, St. Polycarp becomes a whole burnt offering (M.Pol. 14.1–2; Lev. 1). He is also a grain offering (M.Pol. 15.2; Lev. 2), and a peace offering sacrifice of thanksgiving (M.Pol. 14:2; 17.1–3; 18.2–3; 19.2; Lev. 3; 7:11–36). In all three respects, he is offered in continuity with the Sacrifice and Sacrament of Christ (M.Pol. 14.2). The Bishop’s body and life are an acceptable and pleasing sacrifice, because he lives and dies in Christ, and Christ abides in him, as the same Lord Jesus Christ is present with the fruits and benefits of His Passion in the Eucharist.
The sacrifice of thanksgiving that St. Polycarp offers and becomes is not a mute action. It is an embodied and visible word, yes, but one that is accompanied by the voice of faith in the prayer and confession of St. Polycarp, the fruit of lips that praise His Name (Heb. 13:15; Rom. 10:10).
As previously noted, the prayer of St. Polycarp on the verge of his martyrdom is clearly analogous to eucharistic prayers of his day; although, in this case, it is the Bishop himself who is consecrated by the Word of God and prayer (1 Tim. 4:5). Not that he becomes a propitiatory sacrifice for sin, but that he entrusts himself entirely to God, as a sacrifice of thanksgiving, in the confidence and joy of the Sacrifice of Christ. His eucharistic prayer and self-sacrifice arise with Christ to the Father in the Resurrection and Ascension of the incarnate Son of God (Col. 3:1–2). With hints of the Sursum Corda, he lifts up the eyes of his heart to God in heaven; and, although the Sanctus is not referenced, the fellowship of men and angels in the praise of God is suggested by St. Polycarp’s prayer, as also earlier in the narrative of his martyrdom (M.Pol. 2.3; 14.1).
St. Polycarp addresses and acknowledges “the Lord God Almighty” as the Father of His “beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ.” The Bishop confesses that through this Christ “we have received the knowledge” of the Father, “the God of angels and of powers and of all the creation of the entire race of the righteous.” It is through the same Lord Jesus Christ, “the eternal and heavenly High Priest,” that St. Polycarp prays to and praises the Holy Trinity (M.Pol. 14.1, 3).
St. Polycarp’s eucharistic prayer is thoroughly Christocentric. Not only is Christ the object of the Bishop’s praise and thanksgiving, worshiped and glorified together with the Father and the Holy Spirit (M.Pol. 14.3; 19.2), but Christ is also the Subject of the prayer, the One who prays, because He is the One who reveals the Father to the Church (M.Pol. 14.1), through whom St. Polycarp prays to the Father (M.Pol. 14.3). It is in the descending of the Son from the Father into the flesh that God is known in the midst of suffering and death, and it is in the ascending of the incarnate Son to the Father that the Church’s prayer and praise arise like incense before the Holy Trinity (Eph. 4:8–10; Rom. 10:6–8; St. John 3:13). It is in the same way that St. Polycarp himself is also welcomed before God as a rich and acceptable sacrifice (M.Pol. 14.2; 15.2; 19.2).
With his confession of Christ Jesus, St. Polycarp blesses and glorifies the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he gives thanks that he is considered worthy “to receive a portion in the number of the martyrs” (M.Pol. 14.2; 19.2). Here St. Polycarp occupies the place that normally belongs to the bread and wine of the Eucharist. By way of his martyrdom according to the Gospel, he enters into the Holy Communion of Christ the Crucified, into a participation in the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus, unto the resurrection of eternal life in both body and soul. With the martyrs who have gone before him, St. Polycarp’s portion is “in the Cup” of Christ (M.Pol. 14.2); his body in the fire is like “bread baking” (M.Pol. 15.2).
The Bishop is poured out like wine into the Cup of Christ, and he becomes the bread which is the Body of Christ, because he is conformed to the image of Christ the Crucified in his martyrdom, and because the incarnate Christ is present with him in his suffering and death, as surely as He is present with His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
Poignantly, not his persecutors but St. Polycarp is the celebrant of this “Eucharist,” since it is only after he “had offered up the ‘Amen’ and finished his prayer” that “the men attending the pyre lit the fire” (M.Pol. 15.1). Similarly, the police who came to arrest him earlier in the story did not lead him away until his “hour” had come, when he had finished his extended prayers and intercessions (M.Pol. 8.1). It is not that St. Polycarp is forging his own path or determining the course of events. In his eucharistic prayer, he attributes his martyrdom entirely to the will, revelation, guidance, and accomplishment of God the Father (M.Pol. 14.2). But, as a servant of the Lord, “a priest of God Most High” (Gen. 14:18), St. Polycarp is a liturgist in the Name and stead of Christ. Therefore, even though he is arrested, tried, and put to death by the enemies of Christ, everything from start to finish actually proceeds according to the Word and Will of God.
As in the celebration of the Sacrament, the bread — in this case, the body of Bishop Polycarp — is first received from the Lord with thanksgiving (1 Tim. 4:5), and then handed over in the Name of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:23), entrusted to God and to His people, to His glory and for their good.
When it became apparent that St. Polycarp’s body “could not be consumed by the fire,” he was stabbed with a dagger (as the crucified Lord Jesus was pierced, St. John 19:31–36), and from his body came both “a dove” and such an “abundance of blood” that it “quenched the fire,” causing the crowd to marvel (M.Pol. 16.1). This description graphically signifies the way that St. Polycarp “ended the persecution” with his martyrdom (M.Pol. 1.1). By his eucharistic death, the Bishop of Smyrna has become a sacrament of Christ Jesus, through whom the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Church, bestowing peace such as the world cannot give (St. John 14:25–28). Perhaps that same point is implied in describing the day as “a great Sabbath” (M.Pol. 8.1; 21). St. Polycarp enters into the Sabbath Rest of Christ by way of his death (M.Pol. 17.1; 19.2), and he brings peace and rest to others by his dying. “The elect,” who are chosen by God and precious in His sight, although they are despised by the world (1 Peter 2:4–5), are strengthened in faith by the testimony of St. Polycarp’s martyrdom (M.Pol. 16.1; 18.3).
(Excerpted from D. Richard Stuckwisch, “The Eucharistic Martyrdom of St. Polycarp of Smyrna,” in One of the Holy Trinity Suffered for Us: Essays in Honor of Dr. William C. Weinrich, 2021)