Polycrates

Saint Polycrates was bishop of Ephesus at the end of the second century (flourishing around 130-196), known from his letter to Pope Victor in the dispute over the date of Easter.

Eusebius preserved the substance of the letter. From it we know that he came from a family at the center of the Christian community at Ephesus: seven of his relatives had been bishops of the Church of Ephesus, and he was the eighth. He said that he had been sixty-⁠five years in the service of the Lord, so he was probably born about 130. Pope Victor (about 189-199) wished to impose on all Christendom the Western custom of celebrating the Resurrection on a Sunday; synods met in many places in the East and rejected his call. Polycrates was charged by Victor to gather the bishops of Asia Minor, and they in turn charged him to answer in their name.

Polycrates convened a synod at Ephesus, which decided that the custom of Asia should be kept: celebrating Pascha on the fourteenth day of the month, whatever day of the week it fell (Quartodecimanism). In the letter he appealed to the authority of the Apostles Philip and John and of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, Thraseas of Eumenia, Sagaris, Papirius and Melito. Victor was inclined to excommunicate the Churches of Asia, but several bishops, among them Irenaeus, advised him not to, and Victor in the end kept the peace. The Quartodeciman custom gradually died out.