St. Ignatius of Antioch

Bishop of Antioch and Apostolic Father

St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35–c. 107) was the second or third bishop of Antioch in Syria, the city where the disciples were first called Christians. He called himself Theophorus, "the God-bearer," and tradition counts him among the Apostolic Fathers — men who knew or stood in immediate succession to the apostles themselves; later accounts make him a disciple of St. John. Of his long episcopate almost nothing is recorded; it is his final journey that has made him immortal in the Church's memory.

Journey to Rome and Seven Letters

During the reign of the emperor Trajan, around the year 107, Ignatius was condemned for the faith and taken under military guard from Antioch to Rome to be thrown to wild beasts. Along the way, Christian communities sent delegations to meet him, and he wrote seven letters that survive: to the churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, and Smyrna, and to Smyrna's young bishop, St. Polycarp. These letters are among the most precious documents of early Christianity.

Eucharist, Unity, and God's Wheat

In them Ignatius bears witness, within living memory of the apostles, to the Church's essential structure and faith. He is the first writer known to use the phrase "the Catholic Church," he insists on the real flesh and blood of Christ in the Eucharist — which he calls the medicine of immortality — and he urges unity around the bishop with his priests and deacons. Writing ahead to the Romans, he begged them not to hinder his martyrdom, describing himself as God's wheat, to be ground by the teeth of the beasts into pure bread for Christ.

Martyrdom in Rome and Veneration

He was martyred in Rome, according to tradition in the amphitheater, and the Church has venerated him ever since as one of her greatest martyr-bishops. Relics associated with him are traditionally venerated at the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome. His feast is celebrated on October 17, and his letters remain required reading for anyone who wishes to know what the Church believed at the dawn of the second century.

Significance

Ignatius offers one of the clearest early windows into what the Church believed just after the age of the apostles. His letters, written while he was being led to his death, speak of the Eucharist as the true flesh of Christ, of unity around the bishop, and of the Church as Catholic. His burning desire to belong wholly to Christ, even through martyrdom, continues to challenge believers to hold nothing back.