ost advantage. Theodoret tells us that the holy abbot
Publius founded two congregations, the one of Greeks, the other of
Syrians, each using their own tongue in the divine office: for the Greek
and Chaldean were from the beginning {223} sacred languages, or
consecrated by the church in her public prayers. St. Publius flourished
about the year 369. See Theodoret, Philoth. c. 5. Rosweide, l. 6, c. 7.
Chatel. Mart. Univ. p. 886, among the Aemeres, or saints who are not
commemorated on any particular day.

JANUARY XXVI.

ST. POLYCARP, BISHOP OF SMYRNA, M.

From his acts, written by the church of Smyrna in an excellent circular
letter to the churches of Pontus, immediately after his martyrdom: a
piece abridged by Eusebius, b. 4, c. 14, highly esteemed by the
ancients. Joseph Scaliger, a supercilious critic, says that nothing in
the whole course of church history so strongly affected him, as the
perusal of these acts, and those relating to the martyrs of Lyons: that
he never read them but they gave him extraordinary emotions. Animad. in
Chron. Eusebii, n. 2183, &c. They are certainly most valuable pieces of
Christian antiquity. See Eusebius, St. Jerom, and St. Irenaeus. Also
Tillemont, t. 2, p. 327. Dom Ceillier, t. 1. Dom Marechal, Concordance
des Peres Grecs et Latins, t. 1.

A.D. 166.

ST. POLYCARP was one of the most illustrious of the apostolic fathers,
who, being the immediate disciples of the apostles, received
instructions from their mouths, and inherited of them the spirit of
Christ, in a degree so much the more eminent, as they lived nearer the
fountain head. He embraced Christianity very young, about the year 80;
was a disciple of the apostles, in particular of St. John the
Evangelist, and was constituted by him bishop of Smyrna, probably before
his banishment to Patmos, in 96: so that he governed that important see
seventy years. He seems to have been the angel or bishop of Smyrna, who
was commended above all the bishops of Asia by Christ himself in the
Apocalypse,[1] and the only one without a reproach. Our Saviour
encouraged him under his poverty, tribulation, and persecutions,
especially the calumnies of the Jews, called him rich in grace, and
promised him the crown of life by martyrdom. This saint was respected by
the faithful to a degree of veneration. He formed many holy disciples,
among whom were St. Irenaeus and Papias. When Florinus, who had often
visited St. Polycarp, had broached certain heresie