Epistle to Polycarp

Letter from Ignatius to Polycarp

Ignatius, also says Theophore, to Polycarp, bishop (overseer) of the Church of Smyrna, or rather supervised himself by God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, all kinds of joys.

I, 1. Welcoming with joy your feelings for God, founded as on an unshakable rock, I glorify in the extreme the Lord for having judged me worthy to "contemplate" your blameless face: may I enjoy it in God. 2. I exhort you, by the grace with which you are invested, to hasten your course and to exhort all the brethren to be saved. Justify your episcopal dignity by an entire solicitude of flesh and spirit; worry about union, above which there is nothing better. Carry with patience all the brothers as the Lord carries you yourself; support them all with charity, as you do elsewhere. 3. Goes unceasingly in prayer; ask for greater wisdom than you have; watch with a mind that does not rest. Speak to each one in particular, conforming to the mores of God.

II, 1. If you love good disciples, you have no merit. It is especially the most contaminated that you must submit by gentleness. Not every wound can be treated with the same plaster. Calms violent attacks with wet compresses. 2. "Be" in all things "prudent as the serpent and always simple as the dove". You are carnal and spiritual to treat with gentleness what appears to your eyes; As for the invisible things, ask that they be manifested to you so that you lack nothing and that you abound in all spiritual good. 3. The present moment calls for you, as the pilot waits for the winds, and as a storm-beaten man waits for the port, to obtain God. Be sober, like an athlete of God: the price is incorruptibility and eternal life, of which you too are convinced. In all, I am a ransom for you, and those bonds that you loved.

III, 1. Do not let those who seem trustworthy and who teach error to frighten you. Hold on like the anvil under the hammer. It is a great athlete to allow oneself to be beaten by blows, and to conquer. It is because of God that we must endure everything, so that he himself supports us. 2. Be more zealous than you are; discern the times. Wait for the one who is above all vicissitude, invisible, who for us has made himself visible; impalpable, impassive, who for us has made himself liable, who for us has suffered in all ways.

IV, 1. Do not neglect widows: after the Lord, it is you who must take care of them. Let nothing be done without your advice and neither do you do anything without God: neither do you; be firm. 2. That the assemblies be more frequent; invites all brothers by name. 3. Do not despise slaves, men and women; but that they also do not be puffed up with pride, but that for the glory of God they serve with more zeal, in order to obtain from God a better freedom. That they do not seek to be freed at the expense of the community, so as not to be found slaves to their desires.

V, 1. Avoid dishonest professions, or rather make a homily against them. Tell my sisters to love the Lord, and to be content with their husbands of flesh and spirit. Likewise recommend my brothers "to love their wives as the Lord loved the Church". 2. If anyone can remain in chastity in honor of the Lord's flesh, let him remain in humility. If he glorifies himself in it, he is lost, and if he makes himself known to others than the bishop, he is corrupt. It is also appropriate for men and women who marry, to contract their union with the advice of the bishop, so that their marriage takes place according to the Lord and not according to passion. Let everything be done for the honor of God.

VI, 1. Attach yourselves to the bishop, so that God also attaches to you. I offer my life for those who submit to the bishop, priests, deacons; and may it happen that I have part in God with them. Work together with each other, together fight, struggle, suffer, sleep, wake up, like stewards of God, like his assessors, his servants. 2. Seek to please the one under whose orders you are campaigning, from whom also you receive your pay, that no deserter is found among you. May your baptism remain as your shield, faith as your helmet, charity as your spear, patience as your armor. Your deposits are your works, so that you receive the sums to which you are entitled as appropriate. So be patient with one another, with meekness, as God is with you. May I enjoy you continually.

VII, 1. Since the Church, which is in Antioch in Syria, is at peace, as I have been taught, thanks to your prayers, I too have found more confidence in surrender to God, if however, by my sufferings, I obtain God, to be found on the day of resurrection your disciple. 2. It is appropriate, Blessed Polycarp, to convoke an assembly pleasing to God, and to elect someone who is very dear to you and who is active, who can be called the courier of God; charge him to go to Syria to celebrate your indefatigable charity for the glory of God. 3. The Christian has no power over himself, but he is free for the service of God. This is the work of God, and also yours when you have done it. I have faith in grace and believe that you are ready to do a good deed that befits God. Knowing your relentless zeal for the truth, I urged you with these few words.

VIII, 1. Since I was not able to write to all the Churches because of my hasty departure from Troas for Neapolis, as the will of God orders, you will write to all the Churches of the East, you who possess the mind from God, so that they too do the same: those who can send messengers on foot, others letters by those whom you have sent; so you will be glorified for an everlasting work, as you are worthy. 2. I greet you all by name, and the wife of Epitropos with all her house and that of her children. I greet Attalus my beloved. I salute whoever is deemed worthy to leave for Syria. Grace will ceaselessly be with him and with Polycarp who sends him. 3. I wish that you will always be well in our God Jesus Christ; may you in him always remain in unity and under the supervision of God. I greet Alcé, who is so dear to me. Be well in the Lord.