What does St. Irenaeus say about tradition?

In the second half of the second century, St. Irenaeus highlighted the importance of oral tradition. This is evident from the sayings he used to remind his friend Florinus of their earlier days with St. Polycarp in Smyrna .²¹⁶ He says, “I recall the events of that time better than what has happened recently (for what we learn as children grows with the soul and becomes one with it), so that I can tell even the place where the blessed Polycarp sat and talked, his goings and comings, and manner of his life, and the appearance of his body, and the discourses which he gave to the multitude, and how he reported his living with John and with the rest of the Apostles who had seen the Lord, and how he remembered their words, and what the things were which he heard from them about the Lord, and about His miracles and about His teaching, how Polycarp received them [ paralambano ] from eyewitnesses of ‘the word of life,’ (1 John 1:1) and proclaimed them all in harmony with the Scriptures. These things even then I listened to through the mercy of God that was granted me, making notes of them not on paper but in my heart; and ever by the grace of God I ruminate on them.”²¹⁷