Martyrdom of Polycarp, inscription

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:312

Ἡ ἐκκλησία τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ παροικοῦσα Σμύρναν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ παροικούσῃ ἐν Φιλομηλίῳ καὶ πάσαις ταῖς κατὰ πάντα τόπον τῆς ἁγίας καὶ καθολικῆς ἐκκλησίας παροικίαις· ἔλεος, εἰρήνη καὶ ἀγάπη θεοῦ πατρὸς καὶ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ πληθυνθείη.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:312 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 312–345 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Also in

PG 5:1029a (found by text match)

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 25, 1913); made independently of existing English translations.

Scripture

Jude 1:2 · allusion, high confidence
1 Pet 1:2 · echo, low confidence

Notes

Translation notes

“Sojourns” (παροικοῦσα): the church lives in the city as a resident alien lives in a foreign land; “congregations” (παροικίαις) is the noun from the same root, literally “sojournings” (the source of English “parish”).
“Catholic” (καθολικῆς): “universal, whole.” With Ign. Smyrn. 8.2 this is among the earliest uses of the word for the church.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (missing accent); digitization slip against Lake's printed text (missing breathing)): ἐλεος → ἔλεος; Ἰησου Χριστοῦ → Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

Cite this passage

Mart. Pol. 0 (PG 5:1029a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/0/).

Plain text

Mart. Pol. 0 (PG 5:1029a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/0/).