St. Ignatius of Antioch

Oversimplified

  • A bishop of Antioch and disciple of the Apostles, martyred at Rome c. 108; his seven letters, written on the way to the arena, are our earliest window into the post-apostolic Church.
  • He gives us the first clear witness to the three-fold ministry (bishop, presbyter, deacon), to the Eucharist as the true Body of Christ, and to the word "catholic" for the Church.

Summary

St. Ignatius (Theophoros, "God-bearer") was bishop of Antioch and, tradition holds, a hearer of the Apostle John. Condemned to the beasts, he wrote seven letters en route to Rome — to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrnaeans, and to St. Polycarp — begging the Roman Christians not to prevent his martyrdom: "I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ." Polycarp

What his letters witness

Ignatius urges unity around the bishop: "wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic Church" Ignatius of Antioch (Smyrnaeans 8). He calls the Eucharist "the medicine of immortality" and "the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ," Ignatius of Antioch and warns against those who deny Christ's true flesh.[^1] See Bishop, Apostolic Succession, Eucharist, The Church.

Writings

St. Ignatius left seven authentic letters, all written under guard on the road to his martyrdom (c. 107) — the earliest Christian writing outside the New Testament. Each is cited by letter and chapter, exactly as Scripture is cited by book and chapter: Smyrnaeans 8 is the eighth chapter of the Letter to the Smyrnaeans, just as John 6 is the sixth chapter of John.

Also transmitted under his name, but not by his hand: a longer recension that pads the seven letters and adds six more (the spurious epistles), and the Martyrdom of Ignatius, an account of his death written by others. These are noted for completeness and are not cited as his teaching.

[^1]: The seven authentic epistles of St. Ignatius of Antioch (to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrnaeans, and Polycarp) — including the "medicine of immortality" (To the Ephesians 20) and the confession of the Eucharist as Christ's flesh (Smyrnaeans 6–7).