{"id":3119,"date":"2011-06-15T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-15T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=3119"},"modified":"2015-02-02T16:01:23","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T23:01:23","slug":"polycarp-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2011\/06\/15\/polycarp-phoenix\/","title":{"rendered":"Polycarp – Something I didn’t initially notice…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was looking at my post from a couple of days ago<\/a> and noticed something about the icon of Polycarp that I didn’t initially notice…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you look carefully, you will see\u00a0on the left the emblem of a bird, peaking out from\u00a0underneath Polycarp’s robes.\u00a0I believe this bird is the Phoenix. If you don’t know the mythology surrounding the Phoenix, it is described in the letter of St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthians (96 AD):<\/p>\n

“Let us consider that wonderful sign [of the resurrection] which takes place in Eastern lands, that is, in Arabia and the countries round about.\u00a0There is a certain bird which is called a phoenix. This is the only one of its kind, and lives five hundred years. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And when the time of its dissolution draws near that it must die, it builds itself a nest of frankincense, and myrrh, and other spices, into which, when the time is fulfilled, it enters and dies. But as the flesh decays a certain kind of worm is produced, which, being nourished by the juices of the dead bird, brings forth feathers. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Then, when it has acquired strength, it takes up that nest in which are the bones of its parent, and bearing these it passes from the land of Arabia into Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis. And, in open day, flying in the sight of all men, it places them on the altar of the sun, and having done this, hastens back to its former abode. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The priests then inspect the registers of the dates, and find that it has returned exactly as the five hundredth year was completed” – Epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, Chapter 25<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Clement uses the Phoenix as an image of the resurrection. It’s therefore an appropriate symbol for all martyrs, but how much more so Polycarp?!<\/p>\n

“When [Polycarp] had pronounced this ‘Amen’ and so finished his prayer, the men attending to the fire lit it. As the flame blazed forth in great fury…[it shaped] itself in the form of an arch, like the sail of a ship when filled with the wind, surrounding the martyr, his body in the centre of it, not as burning flesh, but as bread that is baking or as gold and silver refined in a furnace! In fact, we even caught a sweet aroma such as the scent of incense or of some other precious spice” – Martyrdom of Polycarp, Chapter 15<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was looking at my post from a couple of days ago and noticed something about the icon of Polycarp that I didn’t initially notice… If you look carefully, you will see\u00a0on the left the emblem of a bird, peaking out from\u00a0underneath Polycarp’s robes.\u00a0I believe this bird is the Phoenix. If you don’t know the mythology surrounding the Phoenix, it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,23],"tags":[51,2969,262,117],"class_list":["post-3119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-church-fathers","tag-early-church-fathers","tag-featured","tag-phoenix","tag-polycarp"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3119"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54853,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions\/54853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}