Saint Bucolus, Bishop of Smyrna

Bucolus was one of the first bishops of Smyrna in Asia Minor, today's Izmir. Tradition holds that the apostle John the Theologian himself made him bishop of the church there, and that he brought many of the city's pagans to baptism. Before his death he entrusted his flock to Polycarp, who became the next bishop of Smyrna and one of the best-known martyrs of the early Church. His Life tells that a myrtle grew on his grave and that the sick were healed by it. He died c. 100.