Saint Polycarp of Smyrna

The Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians

2nd c. · Letters · English translation, 2026

4,898 words · 24 min read· Moderate

Source edition: Πολυκάρπου πρὸς Φιλιππησίους

Cover art: Seaport with the Embarkation of Saint Ursula — Claude Lorrain (French, 1604/05–1682) (Wikimedia Commons (The National Gallery, London), Public domain)

Written by St. Polycarp, disciple of the Apostle John and Bishop of Smyrna, in the early second century, this pastoral letter to the Philippians weaves together moral exhortation, an anti-docetic confession of faith, and the earliest surviving testimony to the collected letters of Ignatius of Antioch — making it an indispensable witness to the generation that stood between the Apostles and the age of the great persecutions.