Polycarp

On this day we celebrate the memory of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna.

Polycarp was a disciple of St. John the Theologian and Evangelist together with Ignatius the God-bearer. He became bishop of Smyrna after St. Voukolos, who had prophesied that Polycarp was to become a bishop. When Decius started a persecution against the Christians in 143, Polycarp was caught and brought to the proconsul where he spoke out confessing Christ and received his martyrdom in fire.

Polycarp received from the Lord the grace of performing miracles. So, even before he became bishop, he prayed and filled with wheat the barns of the woman who brought him up (she often offered her wheat for the needs of the poor brothers). After he had been ordained bishop, he kept a fire from spreading; he prayed and brought rain onto the earth in a time of drought; and he even kept back a great heaviness of rainfall.