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Lectio Studies

The Martyrdom of Polycarp

Chapter 15

2 sections

The Church of Smyrna

Transcribed from a dated scan; artifacts may remain. Edition notes

Now when he had uttered his Amen and finished his prayer, the men in charge of the fire lit it, and a great flame blazed up and we, to whom it was given to see, saw a marvel. And we have been preserved to report to others what befell.

For the fire made the likeness of a room, like the sail of a vessel filled with wind, and surrounded the body of the martyr as with a wall, and he was within it not as burning flesh, but as bread that is being baked, or as gold and silver being refined in a furnace. And we perceived such a fragrant smell as the scent of incense or other costly spices.

Trans. Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, Volume II (Loeb Classical Library), 1913 (this printing 1917). Public domain.

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