The Martyrdom of Polycarp

To this they assented, and he stood[*](His prayer) and prayed—thus filled with the graqe of God— so that for two hours he could not be silent, and those who listened were astounded, and many repented that they had come against such a venerable old man.

Now when he had at last finished his prayer, after remembering all who had ever even come his way, both small and great, high and low, and the whole Catholic Church throughout the world, the hour came for departure, and they set him on an ass, and led him[*](His arrival in Smyrna) into the city, on a great Sabbath day.[*](This may have been the Jewish feast Purim, which, according to tradition, celebrates the triumph of the Jews in Persia over their enemies, as is related in the book of Esther, or else the Sabbath in the Passover week (see p. 311).)