Greek · Letter of the Church of Smyrna
A letter from the church of Smyrna to the church at Philomelium describing Polycarp's arrest and death. It is the earliest Christian martyr account outside the NT.
Dating
Written within a year of the martyrdom (18.3), which is most often dated 155/156; Eusebius' Chronicle implies 167, and some scholars date the text's final form later because of possible interpolations (Moss).Read the full text(opens in a new tab)ANF vol. 1 (1885), tr. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, from CCEL, public domain