me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share the cup of Christ." The date of Polycarp's death is in dispute. Eusebius dates it to the reign of Marcus Aurelius, c. 166–167. However, a post-Eusebian addition to the Martyrdom of Polycarp, dates his death to Saturday, 23 February, in the proconsulship of Lucius Statius Quadratus, c. 155 or 156. These earlier dates better fit the tradition of his association with Ignatius and John the Evangelist. The Martyrdom of Polycarp states that Polycarp was taken on the Sabbath and killed on "the Great Sabbath". English patristic scholar William Cave (1637–1713) believed that this was evidence that the Smyrnaeans under Polycarp observed the seventh-day Sabbath, i.e. assembled on Saturdays. J. B. Lightfoot records as a common interpretation of the expression "the Great Sabbath" to refer to Pesach or another Jewish festival. This is contradicted by the standard Jewish calendar, under which Nisan 14, the date of the Pesach, can fall no earlier than late March and hence at least a month after the traditional date of Polycarp's death 23 February. Hence, Lightfoot understood the expression in reference to the Purim festival, celebrated a month before Pesach, while other scholars suggest that at the time the Jewish calendar had not yet been standardized, and that this day, both Jews and Christians celebrated Pesach and a (Quartodeciman) Christian Passover, respectively. Importance Polycarp occupies an important place in the history of the early Christian Church, was called "the most admirable Polycarp one of these [elect], in whose times among us he showed himself an apostolic and prophetic teacher and bishop of the Catholic Church in Smyrna" by his contemporaries. He is among the earliest Christians whose writings survived. Jerome wrote that Polycarp was a "disciple of the apostle John and by him ordained presbyter of Smyrna". He was an elder of an important congregation that was a large contributor to the founding of the Christian Church. He is from an era whose orthodoxy is widely accepted by Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Church of God groups, Sabbatarian groups, mainstream Protestants and Catholics alike. According to Eusebius, Polycrates of Ephesus cited the example of Polycarp in defense of local practices during the quartodeciman controversy. Irenaeus, who as a young man had heard Polycarp preach, described him as "a man who was of much greater weight, and a more