Martyrdom of Polycarp 13.2

Summary: Polycarp undressed for the pyre himself; the faithful had always honored him for his holy life.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:328–330

ὅτε δὲ ἡ πυρκαϊὰ ἡτοιμάσθη, ἀποθέμενος ἑαυτῷ πάντα τὰ ἱμάτια καὶ λύσας τὴν ζώνην ἐπειρᾶτο καὶ ὑπολύειν ἑαυτόν, μὴ πρότερον τοῦτο ποιῶν διὰ τὸ ἀεὶ ἕκαστον τῶν πιστῶν σπουδάζειν, ὅστις τάχιον τοῦ χρωτὸς αὐτοῦ ἅψηται· παντὶ γὰρ καλῷ ἀγαθῆς ἕνεκεν πολιτείας καὶ πρὸ τῆς μαρτυρίας ἐκεκόσμητο.

English · Claude translation

When the pyre was ready, he took off all his outer garments himself, loosened his belt, and tried also to take off his shoes, though he had not done this before, because each of the faithful was always eager to be the first to touch his skin; for he had been adorned with every good thing because of his good way of life, even before his martyrdom.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:328–330 · 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 5:1040a (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. 13.2 (PG 5:1040a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/13/2/).

Plain text

Mart. Pol. 13.2 (PG 5:1040a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/13/2/).

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:328–330

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage