Primary source · Koine Greek

The Martyrdom of Pionius

Anonymous (partly from Pionius's own prison memoir) · AD 250, Smyrna

What this text is

The Decian persecution at Smyrna, on Polycarp's own feast-day: the presbyter Pionius, the woman Sabina, and Asclepiades taken at prayer — a martyr-act with the texture of a transcript.

Profile of Pionius of Smyrna →

Public-domain translations

E. C. E. Owen (1927)

Pionius said: 'We worship God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.'… When fire was brought and the pyre kindled, he closed his eyes so that the crowd thought he had died; but he was praying in secret, and opening his eyes as the flame rose he said with joy: Amen — Lord, receive my soul.

Manuscript witnesses

Menologion family (Feb. 1 / March 12)

10th c. onward

The Greek Martyrdom in the liturgical books; Eusebius already knew a collection of Pionius's documents.

SURVIVING WITNESSES

Latin and Armenian versions

medieval

Independent lines confirming the Greek.

EARLY VERSIONS

Provenance

Smyrna, AD 250 — the presbyter who taught from the same arena as Polycarp

Editions & scholarship

Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.

Figures named in this text (3)