St. Polycarp Novena Prayer Patron Saint of Against Earache, Dysentery

St. Polycarp Novena All 9 Days.

Novena	St. Polycarp Novena
Novena Begins	February 14
Feast Day	February 23
Patron Saint of	Against Earache, Dysentery

About St. Polycarp

Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, disciple of Saint John the Apostle and friend of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, was a revered Christian leader during the first half of the second century.

Saint Ignatius, on his way to Rome to be martyred, visited Polycarp at Smyrna, and later at Troas wrote him a personal letter. The Asia Minor Churches recognized Polycarp’s leadership by choosing him as a representative to discuss with Pope Anicetus the date of the Easter celebration in Rome—a major controversy in the early Church.

Only one of the many letters written by Polycarp has been preserved, the one he wrote to the Church of Philippi in Macedonia.

At 86, Polycarp was led into the crowded Smyrna stadium to be burned alive. The flames did not harm him and he was finally killed by a dagger. The centurion ordered the saint’s body burned. The “Acts” of Polycarp’s martyrdom are the earliest preserved, fully reliable account of a Christian martyr’s death. He died in 155.

Excerpts from Polycarp’s Letter to the Philippians:

(6-7) Let us be zealous for that which is good, refraining from occasions of scandal and from false brethren, and those who bear in hypocrisy the name of the Lord, who deceive empty-headed people. For “whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist”; and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross “is of the devil”; and whosoever perverts the sayings of the Lord to suit his own lusts and says there is neither resurrection nor judgment—such a one is the first-born of Satan. Let us, therefore, forsake the vanity of the crowd and their false teachings and turn back to the word delivered to us from the beginning, “watching unto prayer” and continuing steadfast in fasting, beseeching fervently the all-seeing God “to lead us not into temptation,” even as the Lord said, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

(8) Let us, then, hold steadfastly and unceasingly to our Hope and to the Pledge of our righteousness, that is, Christ Jesus, “who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, who committed no sin, neither was guile found on his lips”; but for our sakes he endured everything that we might live in him. Therefore let us be imitators of his patient endurance, and if we suffer for the sake of his name, let us glorify him. For he set us this example in his own Person, and this is what we believed.

St. Polycarp Novena Day 1

Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God of all creation, you gave your bishop Polycarp the privilege of being counted among the saints who gave their lives in faithful witness to the gospel. May his prayers give us the courage to share with him the cup of suffering and to rise to eternal glory. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen

(Mention your request here…)

St. Polycarp, pray for us.