Some Authentic Acts of the Early Martyrs

The Church of God which dwells in Smyrna to the Church of God which dwells in Philomelium and to all the dioceses of the Holy Catholic Church in every place. May the mercy, peace, and love of God the F ather and of our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied.

I. I. We write unto you, brethren, the story of the martyrs and of blessed Polycarp, who put an end to the persecution, setting his seal thereto by his martyrdom. F or almost all that went before so happened, that the Lord might show forth anew an example of martyrdom which is conformable to the Gospel. 2. For he waited to be betrayed, as did also the Lord, that we also might be imitators of Him, looking not only on our own things, but also on the things of others. For it is a mark of true and steadfast love to desire not our own salvation only but that of all the brethren.

II. I . Blessed and noble are all martyrdoms that happen according to the will of God. For we should act with discretion leaving the power over all events to God. 2. For who can fail to admire their nobility and patience and love of their Master? Who being so torn with scourges that the framework of the flesh was laid bare to the veins and arteries within, showed such patience that the very bystanders felt pity and sorrow, while some reached so high a pitch of nobility that no sound or groan escaped them, making manifest to us all that in the hour of their torture the martyrs of Christ were absent from the flesh, or rather that the Lord was present and of their company. 3. Fixing their thoughts on the grace of Christ they despised the torments of the world, redeeming in one hour eternal punishment. And the fire of their inhuman torturers was cold to them, for their eyes were set on escape from the eternal fire which is never quenched, and with the eyes of the heart they looked upon the good things reserved for them that endure, which ear hath not heard, nor eye seen, ‘ neither have they entered into the heart of man,’ but they were revealed by the Lord unto them who were no longer men, but already angels. 4. Likewise those who were condemned to the beasts endured terrible torments, having harrows laid beneath them, and being tormented with other kinds of manifold tortures, that the Devil, if he could, might through the continual torment turn them to deny their faith; for he devised many things against them.