Saint Bucolus Bishop of Smyrna

Bishop of Smyrna

According to the Orthodox calendar, Bucolus was a follower of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian and served as bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor. Through divine grace he brought many pagans to Christianity through baptism and provided spiritual guidance to his people while defending the faith.

Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey) was an early center of Christianity. By around AD 93 a Christian community already existed there under episcopal leadership, and the city's church received commendation from Saint John in the Book of Revelation (1:11; 2:8–11).

Succession and Saint Polycarp

Bucolus is chiefly remembered for choosing Saint Polycarp as his successor before reposing in peace. Polycarp, who served as bishop of Smyrna and is regarded as one of the three principal Apostolic Fathers, lived approximately from AD 69–81 to AD 155–167.

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Polycarp's own disciple, reported that he had seen and heard Polycarp personally in lower Asia, and recounted Polycarp's accounts of his association with John the Evangelist and with others who had seen Jesus Christ. Irenaeus noted Polycarp's advanced age and that he had been converted to Christianity by apostles and consecrated a bishop. Jerome likewise described Polycarp as a disciple of the Apostle John, ordained presbyter of Smyrna by him.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp, the earliest genuine post-biblical account of a Christian martyrdom, records Polycarp's death and one of the earliest accounts of the veneration of relics, as the faithful gathered up his bones as precious treasures.

Position in the Episcopal Succession

The Catholic Encyclopedia, drawing on the Vita Polycarpi attributed to Saint Pionius (a Smyrnan priest martyred in AD 250), lists the early bishops of Smyrna in succession as Strataes, Bucolus, Polycarp, Papirius, Camerius, Eudaemon, and Thraseas of Eumenia.

Because that list places Strataes before Bucolus, it suggests Bucolus may have been the second bishop of Smyrna rather than the first, as he is sometimes called. This ordering, however, may not be universally accepted in the Orthodox tradition, which remembers Bucolus as the first bishop of the see.