Polycarp

 On this second to the last day of November, let's go back to the earliest days of the Church with St. Polycarp. Polycarp was part of the second generation of Christians. He was a disciple of the Apostle John. The name is Greek, meaning "much fruit." 

Polycarp was born around the year 69. He was converted to Christianity by apostles, was consecrated a presbyter and communicated with many who had seen Jesus. According to St. Jerome, it was St. John that who ordained Polycarp as Bishop of Smyrna. He is regarded as one of three chief Apostolic Fathers of the Church. 

Polycarp was considered a great leader of the Church and defender of the Faith. Only one of his letters survives, a Letter to the Philippians, in which he repeatedly quotes from St. Paul and also from passages of the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and the Acts of the Apostles - providing early testimony to the importance of these texts to the early Church.

Toward the end of his life, Polycarp visited Bishop Anicetus of Rome to discuss with him the date at which Easter should be celebrated. The dating of the Easter Feast has caused disagreement from the earliest days of the Church - as it still does today. This controversy threated to provoke a schism between the church in Rome and that in Asia Minor. The two men could not reach agreement, so they agreed to disagree and peace was maintained. 

On his return to Smyrna, Polycarp was arrested and burned at the stake and pierced with a spear for refusing to burn incense to the Roman Emperor. The date of his death is in dispute, but he is believed to have been 86 years old. His feast day is February 23. He is patron saint of those with ailments such as earaches or dysentery.