Saints' of the Week

St Polycarp 

Feast Day: 23rd February 

Virtue: Perseverance 

The story of Polycarp's martyrdom is the earliest recorded account of a Christian martyr.

Polycarp was a disciple of St John the Apostle. While still quite young, he became the bishop of Smyrna and was one of the most respected leaders in the first half of the second century. St Ignatius of Antioch and St Irenaeus spoke highly of him and the people love him very much. Polycarp was a Christian leader in a pagan world. He spoke clearly and fearless in his love and defence of Christ, even though persecutions raged around him. He sought only to hand on the message he had been given by John, who had seen and heard and followed Jesus Christ. Even as Polycarp prepared for martyrdom, his joy and confident trust were evident to all. Polycarp was seized for being a Christian. He was threatened and pressured in many ways, yet he declared to his captors, "For eighty-six years I have served Jesus Christ, and he has never abandoned me. How could I curse my blessed king and Savior?." Persecution and death would not tear him away from Jesus now. Polycarp was led into the stadium of Smyrna. The crowd demanded that he be left to the lions, but instead, he was sentenced to death by fire. An eyewitness account claims that the flames didn't harm him. He was finally killed by the sword and his body was burned. Christians buried his remains. Polycarp is remembered as an Apostolic Father, one who was a disciple of the apostles.

Saint Katherine Drexel

Feast Day: 3rd March

Virtue: Knowledge

Saint Katherine Drexel was born in 1858, the daughter of a rich banker.  After her parents

 died and left their children a large inheritance, Katherine still did not know what to do with her life.  When speaking to Pope Leo XIII whom she expected to send someone to help the native Indians and Afro-Americans, he instead thought she herself should go.  She did. She founded schools and the first University in Louisiana for black Americans.  She gave money from her inheritance to fund all these projects whilst herself living simply and in a spirit of poverty.