THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS The “apostolic fathers” are so named because they lived during the age of the apostles and because they authored the earliest postcanonical Christian writings. The group includes Barnabas of Alexandria, who wrote sometime between A.D. 70 and A.D. 100, Hermas, who wrote most likely in the early part of the second century A.D., Clement of Rome, who wrote around A.D. 97, Polycarp, a presbyter from Smyrna, who died around A.D. 155, Papias of Hierapolis in Asia Minor, who died around