St. Ignatius of Antioch ~ Page 2

�t. I�n atius o� Antioch

Martyrdom of St. Ignatius, drawing after a 9th century Greek manuscript

BORN 50; DIED ABOUT 107 Ignatius was taken under military guard from BISHOP AND MARTYR Antioch to Rome to carry out the sentence. In FEAST DAY: OCTOBER 17 the usual way, the journey was not a direct voy- age to Rome but done by means of coast-hop- HERE IS A CHARMING TRADITION (which of ping and was therefore not short, with numer- course cannot be verified) that St. Ignatius of ous stops. Wherever these occurred, he was met Antioch was the child that Jesus placed in the by the local Christian community for his bless- Tmidst of the apostles when they were arguing ing. He also took two opportunities, at Smyrna about who was greater. Jesus said to all of them: and Troas, to write a total of seven letters that “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like are among the most treasured of early Chris- children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. tian documents. Five of the letters, addressed to Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the great- the communities of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, est in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 18:3-4). Philadelphia, and Smyrna, were written in his Ignatius was born perhaps in Syria and was episcopal capacity and have a strongly pastoral probably a disciple of the Apostle John. He character. The sixth was written to his disciple became the second or third bishop of Antioch, St. Polycarp, and the seventh to the Christian Syria (modern Antakya near the southeastern community of Rome. This has a markedly dif- coast of Turkey), the same city in which Chris- ferent tone since he is not writing so much as a tians had first been called by that name, serv- bishop but to ask their prayers and beg them not ing as bishop for some forty years. Under the to interfere with his martyrdom. He died for the Roman emperor Trajan, he was condemned to entertainment of the Roman population in one death for failing to worship the gods to whom of the city’s public arenas, devoured by lions. Trajan attributed great military victories. The letters Ignatius wrote to the various

The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) grants the original purchaser (parish, local parochial institution, or individual) permission to reproduce this handout. churches share many themes — obedience to to be the food of wild beasts through whom I their bishops, priests, and deacons; faithful- may attain unto God. I am God’s grain and I ness in worship; practice of the virtues; pa- am to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that tience in suffering; and adherence to the true I may be found the pure bread of Christ.” doctrine of the Church. It was in his letter to It is not possible to read the seven letters of the Smyrneans that Ignatius wrote: “Where Ignatius without realizing that the Church had the bishop is, there is the Christian communi- already taken the same organizational structure ty, just as where Christ is, there is the Catho- it has today, and that what Catholics believe to- lic Church.” This is the first time the phrase day is what Ignatius believed then. In his let- “the Catholic Church” had ever appeared. ters are the doctrines of the Trinity, of both the It is also in this letter that Ignatius makes it divinity and humanity of Jesus, of his birth from plain his belief in Jesus’ a virgin, and of his true, true humanity and the “I am God’s grain and not symbolic, presence Eucharist as his true in the Eucharist, call- body. To the Philadel- I am to be ground ing the Eucharist “the phians, he wrote: “Use flesh of our Savior Jesus one Eucharist; for the by the teeth of wild beasts Christ, which flesh suf- flesh of the Lord Jesus that I may be found fered for our sins.” And Christ is one and the while no one can ever cup is one, to unite us the pure bread of Christ.” know if Ignatius was all in his blood. There that child singled out by is one altar, as there is one bishop, together Christ, he taught humility and gentleness, en- with the body of the priesthood and the dea- couraging the Ephesians among others to “in cons my fellow servants, that whatever you all purity and sobriety abide in Christ Jesus in do, you may do according to God.” flesh and in spirit.” This wonderful man speaks Ignatius, in his long journey to Rome, very to Christians from a distance of nearly nineteen likely feared his death even while he welcomed hundred years — and his voice is the voice of the opportunity to be a martyr. He asked the Christ’s Church today. The faith of Ignatius is Trallians to pray for him so that he would not the faith of the apostles, the faith that has been fail the test that awaited him, and the Romans to handed down from the beginning to the present pray that he may be given the grace to not only day. The witness of Ignatius is the witness of be called but be found a Christian. In a passage all the martyrs, desiring to die rather than deny in his Roman letter, he asked them: “Suffer me their Lord.

St. Ignatius of Antioch ~ Page 2