9)--found their opportunity. Their vengeance then was
only slaked by the blood of the Christian Bishop.

The Saint's martyrdom was the crowning consummation of the Saint's life.
With the Bishop of Durham's help we can now collect all that we shall
probably ever know of both; and to this we turn in conclusion.[89]

The date of his martyrdom may be accepted as about 155 A. D.[90] If
Polycarp was then 86 years of age, his birth may be placed in A. D. 60
or 70, at a time nearly coincident with the date of the destruction of
Jerusalem. That event was the cause which drove St. John to fix his
abode ultimately at Ephesus, the traditional home of St. Andrew, and
near to the Phrygian Hierapolis, where St. Philip the Apostle died and
was buried. The proximity of Smyrna to Ephesus, and the reputation
accorded to both in the flattering designation of 'the two eyes' of
proconsular Asia, would make intercourse between the cities familiar and
frequent. In the Christian advantages consequent upon such intercourse
Polycarp had his full share, if it be impossible to assert positively
that he was a Smyrnaean by birth, and of Christian parentage. But the
legends at the close of the fourth century, as embodied in the story of
Pionius, sought and found for his origin a more romantic, if sad,
beginning. One night, God's Angel appeared to a widow of Smyrna named
Callisto, rich in worldly wealth, but still more rich in good work.
'Go,' he bade her, 'to the Ephesian gate. There you will find two men.
They have with them a young lad for sale. Give them their price, and
take and keep the child. He is by birth an Eastern.' The child was
Polycarp. She did as she was bid. She bought and reared him, and
eventually left to him all her substance. The fact implied in the last
words, that Polycarp was a comparatively well-to-do man, is the one fact
out of the above story supported by more authentic documents. Perhaps
also the picture of the man, so pleasing and natural, drawn by Pionius,
may present traits faithful to the original:--

'The love of knowledge and the fondness of the Scriptures,
which distinguishes the people of the East, bore rich fruit
in him. He offered himself a whole offering to God, by
prayer and study of the Scriptures, by spareness of diet and
simplicity of clothing, by liberal almsgiving. He was
bashful and retiring, shunning the busy throngs of men, and
consorting only with those who needed his