The Martyrdom of Polycarp is one of the works of the Apostolic Fathers, and as such is one of the very few genuine such writings from the actual age of the persecutions. The work details Polycarp's death at the age of 86 years old, at the hands of the Romans, in the second century AD. It is among the first recorded Acts of the Martyrs. The Apostolic Fathers were a small collection of Christian authors who lived and wrote in the late 1st century and early 2nd century who are acknowledged as leaders in the early church, but whose writings were not included in the collection of Christian scripture, the New Testament Biblical canon, at... For other uses, see Polycarp (disambiguation). ... Acts of the Martyrs are accounts of the suffering and death of a martyr or group of martyrs. ...
Polycarp was a companion of Papias (Irenaeus V.xxxii) another "hearer of John" as Irenaeus interprets Papias' testimony, and a correspondent of Ignatius of Antioch.
Polycarp's famous pupil was Irenaeus, for whom the memory of Polycarp was a link to the apostolic past.
Polycarp visited Rome during the time of his fellow Syrian, Pope Anicetus in the 150s or 160s, and they found their customs for observing Easter differed, Polycarp following the eastern practice of celebrating Easter on the 14th of Nisan, the day of the Jewish Passover, regardless of what day of the week it falls.
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