It's true - probably it doesn't really matter to our everyday lives now. Polycarp lived in the latter part of the first century until around 156 AD. Since then he has largely been forgotten by the Church, and everyone else for that matter. However, his generation of Christians played a key role in ensuring that the Church continued to exist after Jesus' original disciples had all died. Polycarp was one of the key members of that generation, along with others such as Clement in Rome and Ignatius in Antioch, whom we shall meet later this year.
He was a disciple of Jesus' own disciple, John. Towards the end of his life, John seems to have have some form of top-level oversight over several churches, including a group in the Roman province of Asia, now western asiatic Turkey. These include Ephesus, where John was based for a while, and also Smyrna, where Polycarp was the church overseer. It appears that he was appointed by John to lead the Christian work there and is now known as the Bishop of Smyrna, although the traditional concept of bishop is probably not quite applicable in his case.
Not a lot is known about Polycarp's life. However, when John was in exile in Patmos, Jesus dictated seven letters to him, to be sent to churches in the province of Asia. Most of these had some sort of rebuke in them, because the churches was falling short of how they should have been acting. The letter to the church in Smyrna, though, despite containing a warning about very difficult times to come, was completely positive about the people and their faith in Jesus. This is a strong testimony to the leadership of Polycarp and other prominent Christians in the city at a time of some degree of persecution under the emperor Domitian.
Like John, Polycarp also had disciples who went on to become great men of faith, including Irenaeus, who was ultimately appointed as the bishop of what is now Lyons, France. We learn from Irenaeus that Polycarp knew other people who had been with Jesus, beside John, and was, therefore, a fount of knowledge about the basics of the Christian faith. This is incredibly important. It was essential that the gospel of Jesus was promoted untainted by views of the various false teachers who were springing up. Polycarp was a central player in that, as was Irenaeus, who grew a reputation for countering heresy.
Polycarp lived and was killed for his best friend, Jesus. His may not be a household name anymore, but he was instrumental in giving us the New Testament as it is today and in continuing the growth of the Church once Jesus' original apostles had all died.
There is now only one document written by Polycarp still in existence: his letter to the church in Philppi, written sometime in the first few decades of the 2nd century. This is one of the first early Christian writings which quotes from various documents which are now incorporated into the New Testament; in fact it quotes from, or at least allludes to most, if not all the New Testament books. Therefore, it's partly down to his inspired choice of what he considered important in the writings of his Christian predecessors, that the New Testament contains what it does. Notably, in this letter Polycarp is very keen to show that he is building on what Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, rather than bringing a new teaching of his own.
Within the ninth chapter of his letter, Polycarp, echoing the writer of the letter to the Hebrews (chapter 11), mentions some more recent heroes of faith, explicitly Ignatius (another disciple of John), Rufus and Zosimus, who had been martyred in 108 AD during the persecution under emperor Trajan. He also refers to Paul, who had been executed under Nero's persecution 40 years earlier. In this chapter he says that these men didn't love this world, but him who died for us and was resurrected by God; they are now in the presence of the Lord.
Polycarp made a journey to Rome in about 155 AD, to speak against the heresy that was becoming rife in that city. Probably the next year, he himself followed Paul, Ignatius, Rufus and Zosimus in dying for Jesus. He was at least 86 years old when he died and is said to have stated, when given the option to deny his faith, "I have served Him for 86 years, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king and saviour?"
So Polycarp doesn't have a direct influence on my life or yours today. However, in holding to the pure faith of his mentor and passing that on to his disciples, in his exemplary leadership of the church in Smyrna and his wider influence in the area, in his stand against heresy at the heart of the Roman Empire, his understanding of what were key texts among the previous Christian writings, his encouragement of young churches further afield, and his refusal to deny his Lord, this man of God was one of the most significant Church leaders in the first half of the 2nd century. We owe so much to him and others like him, who enabled the true gospel of Jesus to survive and the church to grow through those times of great difficulty and hardship, so that we can still know about Jesus ourselves today. Let his story be an inspiration to all of us as we take up the opportunity to further the Kingdom of God.
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