Martyrdom of Polycarp of Smyrna

Timeline Event · mid-second century; exact year debated · Smyrna

About this date: Placed at 157 as an approximate visual marker; estimates for the martyrdom vary. The martyrdom account is a communal narrative, not Polycarp's own letter.

An early Christian narrative remembers the death of Smyrna's bishop and the community's care for the memory of its martyr.