Polycarp was burned to death as a martyr.

Irenaeus claims that Polycarp was a student of the apostle John. Little is certainly known of the life of Polycarp other than his letter to the congregation at Philippi and the events of his death. Because he died as a martyr and the account of his death was widely known, he became prototypical for later generations of martyrs. His epistle to Philippi, a covering comment for the seven letters of Ignatius of Antioch that Polycarp had gathered to send to the Philippian Christians, illustrates a typical form of early Christianity. It reveres tradition, it combats Docetism, it is strongly moral, and it calls for the care of the poor. As an inheritor of the earliest Christian traditions and mentor of Irenaeus, Polycarp links later generations with the apostolic era.