St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

He died in the year 107 and is remembered on 17 October.

Among the models of pastoral holiness we remember Ignatius of Antioch who was an extraordinary bishop and martyr, and disciple of St. John the Evangelist. The witness of his holiness and passion for the unity of the Church can help us to live our mission and to make progress in the path of holiness.

 

Etymology: Ignatius = from L. igneus "of fire, fiery".

Symbol: pastoral staff, palm of martyrdom.

 

He was the third bishop of Antioch, in Syria, the third great metropolis of the ancient world after Rome and Alexandria, and of which St. Peter was its first bishop. He was not a Roman citizen and it is thought that he converted to Christianity at not so young an age. While he was bishop of Antioch, the Roman Emperor Trajan began to persecute him and had him arrested and sentenced to death by being thrown to wild beasts, and for this purpose he was sent to Rome.
  

On the journey to Rome he wrote seven letters where he exhorted Christians to avoid sin, to be mindful of errors and to keep the unity of the Church. He also pleaded with them not to intercede in his favour to be spared from martyrdom. In the year 107 he was torn to pieces by the wild beasts towards which he was sympathetic. “Rejoice therefore, he wrote, that they shall be my tomb, and that nothing shall be left of my body, that my funeral shall thus cost no man aught.”
  

We read in the Roman Martyrology: St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr. Memoria. He was sentenced to death by being thrown to wild beasts and for this purpose he was sent to Rome and in the year 107 under the Emperor Trajan suffered a glorious martyrdom. On the journey to Rome he wrote seven letters to the various churches in which he dealt wisely and deeply with the theology of Christ, the constitution of the church and the Christian life.
 

 

To the Christians at Ephesus he wrote:

“I do not issue orders to you, as if I were some great person. For though I am bound for the name [of Christ], I am not yet perfect in Jesus Christ. For now I begin to be a disciple, and I speak to you as fellow-disciples with me. For it was needful for me to have been stirred up by you in faith, exhortation, patience, and long-suffering. But inasmuch as love suffers me not to be silent in regard to you, I have therefore taken upon me first to exhort you that ye would all run together in accordance with the will of God.”

(Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter III.—Exhortations to unity).

 

And to the Christians in Rome that he was on his way to reach he wrote:

“Earthly longings have been crucified; in me there is left no spark of desire for mundane things, but only a murmur of living water that whispers within me, ‘Come to the Father’. There is no pleasure for me in any meats that perish, or in the delights of this life; I am fain for the bread of God, even the flesh of Jesus Christ, who is the seed of David; and for my drink I crave that blood of his which is love imperishable.
Let me be given to the wild beasts, for through them I can attain unto God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the wild beasts that I may be found the pure bread of Christ.
All the pleasures of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, shall profit me nothing. It is better for me to die in behalf of Jesus Christ, than to reign over all the ends of the earth. “For what shall a man be profited, if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?” Him I seek, who died for us: Him I desire, who rose again for our sake. This is the gain which is laid up for me.”

(Letter to the Romans 4, 1-2; 6, 1-8, 3)