Martyrdom of Polycarp

Lake, Loeb 1913

Chapter 16

Polycarp’s death

At length the lawless men, seeing that his body could not be consumed by the fire, commanded an executioner to go up and stab him with a dagger, and when he did this, there came out a dove,¹ and much blood, so that the fire was quenched and all the crowd marvelled that there was such a difference between the unbelievers and the elect.

And of the elect was he indeed one, the wonderful martyr. Polycarp, who in our days was an apostolic and prophetic teacher, bishop of the Catholic² Church in Smyrna. For every word which he uttered from his mouth both was fulfilled and will be fulfilled.

Notes

This no doubt points to the belief that the spirit appears at death in the form of a bird. Cf. Prudentius Peristeph. Hymn. iii. 33 (other references are also given by Lightfoot).
If the reading “Catholic” be right, this and the instance on p. 322 are the earliest clear examples of this use of the word (but cf. Ignatius, Smyrn. viii.).