St Ignatius of Antioch
Died in the year 110
St Ignatius, bishop of Antioch in Syria at the beginning of the second century, was the second successor of St Peter in that see. He was a disciple of the apostle St John, and also met St Peter, having probably been ordained by him.
During the reign of Emperor Trajan, Ignatius was sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts. He was transported in chains to his martyrdom in Rome; along the way, he was met by Christians from nearby places. To these friends, he wrote seven letters, six addressed to some Christian communities and one personal letter to Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna. All seven are most beautiful pearls of our extant early Christian literature. His martyrdom took place in the Roman Colosseum in the year 110.
In every paragraph of these letters, there seems to be an implicit allusion to the admonition of St Paul to the Corinthians: “Uphold the traditions just as I have handed them on to you” (1 Cor 11:2; see also 2 Thess 2:15 and 3:6). This insistence on divine Tradition received from the apostles gains significance considering that these letters were written about AD 110, that is, only about ten or fifteen years after the death of the last apostle.
There are three themes developed in St Ignatius’s letters: (a) the role of the bishop as a sign of unity of the local church`and as pastor fostering sanctity for all; (b) the reality of the Incarnation of Christ–i.e., it was not merely in appearance; and (c) Ignatius’s desire to suffer for Christ.
The Letter of St Ignatius to the Ephesians
circa year 110
The first four letters were penned at Smyrna. In these, he thanks the Christians for the many proofs of sympathy he had received, exhorts them to obey the hierarchy, and warns them against heretical doctrines. The hierarchy appears to be composed by one bishop for every community, the presbyters (priests), and the deacons.
In this first letter Ignatius tackles the theme of unity–the bishop united to Christ’s mind; the priests united to their bishop; and the laity with the hierarchy.
2 May you ever be my joy, if I ever deserve it! It is right for you to give glory in every way to Jesus Christ, who has glorified you. You must be made holy in all things by being united in perfect obedience, in submission to the bishop and the presbyters.
3 I am not giving you orders as if I were a person of importance. Even if I am in chains for the name of Christ, I am not yet made perfect in Jesus Christ. I am now learning to be a disciple, and I am speaking to you as my fellow disciples. It is you who should be strengthening me by your faith, your encouragement, your patience, your steadfastness.
But since love will not allow me to be silent about you, I am taking the opportunity to urge you to live unity in conformity with the mind of God. For Jesus Christ, our life, without whom we cannot live, is the mind of the Father, just as the bishops, appointed over the whole earth, are in conformity with the mind of Jesus Christ.
4 It is fitting, therefore, that you should be in agreement with the mind of the bishop–in fact you are. Your excellent presbyters–they are a credit to God–are as harmoniously united to the bishop as strings to a harp. So, in your symphony of minds and hearts, -the song you sing is for Jesus Christ.
But you, the laity, should also form a choir, so that, in harmony of sound through unity of hearts, taking the key note from God, you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father. If you do this, he will listen to you and recognize his Son’s melody. He will see from your good works that you are members of his Son. It is then profitable for you to live in perfect unity, so that at all times you may have a share in God.
5 If in a short span of time I have become so close a friend of your bishop–in a friendship not based on human grounds but on spiritual–how much more blessed you are! For you are as united with him as the Church is to Jesus Christ; and as Jesus Christ is to the Father. As a result, all things are in harmony through unity. Let no one deceive himself: Unless a person is within the place for sacrifice [the Church], he is deprived of the Bread of God. If the prayer of one or two has such power, how much more has the prayer of the bishop and the entire Church.
Christians should lead a coherent life.
7 Some among you have acquired the vice of going about with the Holy Name on their lips, while they indulge in practices which are an insult to God. These you must avoid as wild beasts; they are rabid dogs that bite in secret. You must beware of them, for they are hard to cure.
15 It is better to keep silence and be something than to talk and be nothing. Teaching is an excellent thing, provided you practice what you teach.
In a prevailing atmosphere of corruption, a Christian should pray and fight to persevere and lead others to Christ.
10 Pray unceasingly also for the rest of men. There is still hope that they may be converted and find their way to God. By the testimony of your clean lives, offer them an opportunity of becoming your fellow disciples.
Meet their angry outbursts with your gentleness, their boasts with your humility, their contempt with your prayers, their errors with your constancy in the faith, their cruelty with your serenity. Above all, do not try to match their example.
Let us prove ourselves their brothers through kindness. Let us strive to follow the Lord’s example and see who among you can suffer greater wrong with patience, who more deprivation, who more contempt. Thus, no weed of the devil will be found among you; and you will persevere in perfect chastity and sobriety, in body and soul, through Jesus Christ.
The fate of those who corrupt the faith.
16 Do not be deceived, my brethren, those who corrupt the families will not inherit the Kingdom of heaven. If those who commit that sin according to the flesh will suffer death for ever, how much more will suffer a man who corrupts the faith of the others; a man who spreads his own evil doctrine among those for whom Jesus Christ was crucified. Such a filthy creature will go into unquenchable fire, and so also will anyone who listens to him.
Jesus is declared to be true God and true man. He was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.
7 There is one Physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and unborn, who is God and became man, true life in death. He sprung both from Mary and from God; therefore, he was subject to suffering and, on the other respect, incapable of it, Jesus Christ our Lord.
18 Our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan; of the seed of David, it is true, but also of the Holy Spirit.
19 The virginity of Mary, her giving birth to the Man-God, and also the death of the Lord true God; these are three mysteries loudly proclaimed to all, but hidden from the Prince of this world.
Christ, true God, dwells in the soul of a Christian as in a temple. The sacraments–instituted by Christ–are means to achieve sanctity.
9 You are like stones prepared for a temple of God the Father. You are hoisted to the heights of the edifice by the crane of Jesus Christ, which is the Cross; using for a rope the Holy Spirit.
Your faith is what pulls you up, and charity is the road which leads you to God. And thus you become wayfarers all, carrying God with you, carrying a temple, carrying Christ with you, carrying holiness, with the commandments of Christ covering you as a tunic.
12 You have shared in the sacraments with Blessed Paul, a great saint and martyr. Throughout his letter [to the Ephesians], he directed you to remain faithful children of God in Jesus Christ. May I remain in Paul’s footsteps when I reach God.
13 Strive for sanctity, celebrate frequently the Eucharist, and praise God. When you do so, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and his attacks are blunted by your fortitude in the faith.
15 Let us therefore do all things in the conviction that Christ dwells in us. Thus we shall be his temples, and he will be our God within us. And this is the truth, and he will be made manifest before our eyes. Let us, then, love him as he deserves.
The letter ends with a petition for unity.
20 Show obedience to the bishop and to the presbyters with undivided mind. Break the one Bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death, and everlasting life in Jesus Christ.
21 I offer my life as a ransom for you. Remember me as Jesus Christ remembers you. Pray for the Church in Syria, away from which I am being led with chains to Rome, though I am the least of all the faithful there. But then, I was granted the favor of contributing to the honor of God. Farewell! May God the Father and Jesus Christ, our common Hope, bless you!
St Ignatius, bishop of Antioch in Syria at the beginning of the second century, was the second successor of St Peter in that see. He was a disciple of the apostle St John, and also met St Peter, having probably been ordained by him.
During the reign of Emperor Trajan, Ignatius was sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts. He was transported in chains to his martyrdom in Rome; along the way, he was met by Christians from nearby places. To these friends, he wrote seven letters, six addressed to some Christian communities and one personal letter to Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna. All seven are most beautiful pearls of our extant early Christian literature. His martyrdom took place in the Roman Colosseum in the year 110.
In every paragraph of these letters, there seems to be an implicit allusion to the admonition of St Paul to the Corinthians: “Uphold the traditions just as I have handed them on to you” (1 Cor 11:2; see also 2 Thess 2:15 and 3:6). This insistence on divine Tradition received from the apostles gains significance considering that these letters were written about AD 110, that is, only about ten or fifteen years after the death of the last apostle.
There are three themes developed in St Ignatius’s letters: (a) the role of the bishop as a sign of unity of the local church`and as pastor fostering sanctity for all; (b) the reality of the Incarnation of Christ–i.e., it was not merely in appearance; and (c) Ignatius’s desire to suffer for Christ.
The Letter of St Ignatius to the Ephesians
circa year 110
The first four letters were penned at Smyrna. In these, he thanks the Christians for the many proofs of sympathy he had received, exhorts them to obey the hierarchy, and warns them against heretical doctrines. The hierarchy appears to be composed by one bishop for every community, the presbyters (priests), and the deacons.
In this first letter Ignatius tackles the theme of unity–the bishop united to Christ’s mind; the priests united to their bishop; and the laity with the hierarchy.
2 May you ever be my joy, if I ever deserve it! It is right for you to give glory in every way to Jesus Christ, who has glorified you. You must be made holy in all things by being united in perfect obedience, in submission to the bishop and the presbyters.
3 I am not giving you orders as if I were a person of importance. Even if I am in chains for the name of Christ, I am not yet made perfect in Jesus Christ. I am now learning to be a disciple, and I am speaking to you as my fellow disciples. It is you who should be strengthening me by your faith, your encouragement, your patience, your steadfastness.
But since love will not allow me to be silent about you, I am taking the opportunity to urge you to live unity in conformity with the mind of God. For Jesus Christ, our life, without whom we cannot live, is the mind of the Father, just as the bishops, appointed over the whole earth, are in conformity with the mind of Jesus Christ.
4 It is fitting, therefore, that you should be in agreement with the mind of the bishop–in fact you are. Your excellent presbyters–they are a credit to God–are as harmoniously united to the bishop as strings to a harp. So, in your symphony of minds and hearts, -the song you sing is for Jesus Christ.
But you, the laity, should also form a choir, so that, in harmony of sound through unity of hearts, taking the key note from God, you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father. If you do this, he will listen to you and recognize his Son’s melody. He will see from your good works that you are members of his Son. It is then profitable for you to live in perfect unity, so that at all times you may have a share in God.
5 If in a short span of time I have become so close a friend of your bishop–in a friendship not based on human grounds but on spiritual–how much more blessed you are! For you are as united with him as the Church is to Jesus Christ; and as Jesus Christ is to the Father. As a result, all things are in harmony through unity. Let no one deceive himself: Unless a person is within the place for sacrifice [the Church], he is deprived of the Bread of God. If the prayer of one or two has such power, how much more has the prayer of the bishop and the entire Church.
Christians should lead a coherent life.
7 Some among you have acquired the vice of going about with the Holy Name on their lips, while they indulge in practices which are an insult to God. These you must avoid as wild beasts; they are rabid dogs that bite in secret. You must beware of them, for they are hard to cure.
15 It is better to keep silence and be something than to talk and be nothing. Teaching is an excellent thing, provided you practice what you teach.
In a prevailing atmosphere of corruption, a Christian should pray and fight to persevere and lead others to Christ.
10 Pray unceasingly also for the rest of men. There is still hope that they may be converted and find their way to God. By the testimony of your clean lives, offer them an opportunity of becoming your fellow disciples.
Meet their angry outbursts with your gentleness, their boasts with your humility, their contempt with your prayers, their errors with your constancy in the faith, their cruelty with your serenity. Above all, do not try to match their example.
Let us prove ourselves their brothers through kindness. Let us strive to follow the Lord’s example and see who among you can suffer greater wrong with patience, who more deprivation, who more contempt. Thus, no weed of the devil will be found among you; and you will persevere in perfect chastity and sobriety, in body and soul, through Jesus Christ.
The fate of those who corrupt the faith.
16 Do not be deceived, my brethren, those who corrupt the families will not inherit the Kingdom of heaven. If those who commit that sin according to the flesh will suffer death for ever, how much more will suffer a man who corrupts the faith of the others; a man who spreads his own evil doctrine among those for whom Jesus Christ was crucified. Such a filthy creature will go into unquenchable fire, and so also will anyone who listens to him.
Jesus is declared to be true God and true man. He was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.
7 There is one Physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and unborn, who is God and became man, true life in death. He sprung both from Mary and from God; therefore, he was subject to suffering and, on the other respect, incapable of it, Jesus Christ our Lord.
18 Our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan; of the seed of David, it is true, but also of the Holy Spirit.
19 The virginity of Mary, her giving birth to the Man-God, and also the death of the Lord true God; these are three mysteries loudly proclaimed to all, but hidden from the Prince of this world.
Christ, true God, dwells in the soul of a Christian as in a temple. The sacraments–instituted by Christ–are means to achieve sanctity.
9 You are like stones prepared for a temple of God the Father. You are hoisted to the heights of the edifice by the crane of Jesus Christ, which is the Cross; using for a rope the Holy Spirit.
Your faith is what pulls you up, and charity is the road which leads you to God. And thus you become wayfarers all, carrying God with you, carrying a temple, carrying Christ with you, carrying holiness, with the commandments of Christ covering you as a tunic.
12 You have shared in the sacraments with Blessed Paul, a great saint and martyr. Throughout his letter [to the Ephesians], he directed you to remain faithful children of God in Jesus Christ. May I remain in Paul’s footsteps when I reach God.
13 Strive for sanctity, celebrate frequently the Eucharist, and praise God. When you do so, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and his attacks are blunted by your fortitude in the faith.
15 Let us therefore do all things in the conviction that Christ dwells in us. Thus we shall be his temples, and he will be our God within us. And this is the truth, and he will be made manifest before our eyes. Let us, then, love him as he deserves.
The letter ends with a petition for unity.
20 Show obedience to the bishop and to the presbyters with undivided mind. Break the one Bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death, and everlasting life in Jesus Christ.
21 I offer my life as a ransom for you. Remember me as Jesus Christ remembers you. Pray for the Church in Syria, away from which I am being led with chains to Rome, though I am the least of all the faithful there. But then, I was granted the favor of contributing to the honor of God. Farewell! May God the Father and Jesus Christ, our common Hope, bless you!