The Rise of Modern Smyrna

The sharp contrast which is apparent to-day between the fortunes of Smyrna and of her sister ‘Churches of Asia’ has long been brought into connection with the prophecies contained in the Revelation of S. John. While the apocalyptic messages to the other Churches are minatory or equivocal, Smyrna is favoured by the promise of a ‘crown of life’ on condition of ‘faithfulness to the end,’ a condition vaguely felt to have been fulfilled by the steadfastness under persecution of S. Polycarp and his companions in the second century of our era. Modern Smyrna is exuberantly prosperous: the other episcopal cities are either, like Ephesus, ruined and desolate, or, like Pergamus, reduced from international to purely local importance.