Martyrdom of Polycarp 12.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The crowd demanded that Polycarp be burned, fulfilling his earlier vision.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:328

τότε ἔδοξεν αὐτοῖς ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἐπιβοῆσαι, ὥστε τὸν Πολύκαρπον ζῶντα κατακαῦσαι. ἔδει γὰρ τὸ τῆς φανερωθείσης αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τοῦ προσκεφαλαίου ὀπτασίας πληρωθῆναι, ὅτε ἰδὼν αὐτὸ καιόμενον προσευχόμενος εἶπεν ἐπιστραφεὶς τοῖς σὺν αὐτῷ πιστοῖς προφητικῶς· Δεῖ με ζῶντα καῆναι.

English · Claude translation

Then they decided to shout with one accord that Polycarp should be burned alive. For the vision that had been shown to him about the pillow had to be fulfilled, when he saw it burning while he was praying, and turned and said prophetically to the faithful who were with him, “I must be burned alive.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:328 · 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 5:1037c (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.

Topics

Martyrdom

Cite this passage

Mart. Pol. 12.3 (PG 5:1037c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/12/3/).

Plain text

Mart. Pol. 12.3 (PG 5:1037c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/12/3/).