A disciple of the Apostle John and second bishop of Antioch, who was taken in chains to Rome to be killed by wild beasts in the Colosseum, and wrote seven letters along the road that have shaped the Church ever since.
- Born
- c. 35
- Reposed
- c. 108 (Rome)
- See
- Antioch
- Feast
- December 20
Ignatius is one of the small handful of figures who form the visible bridge from the apostolic generation to the Church of the Fathers. The tradition names him a disciple of the Apostle John, alongside the younger Polycarp of Smyrna, and identifies him with the child whom the Lord set in the midst of the disciples and said, 'Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.' From this comes his second name, Theophorus, the God-bearer.
He was formed by John in the years the Apostle spent at Ephesus and in the cities of Asia, and the Johannine cast of his thought is unmistakable in his letters: the eternity of the Word, the unity of the Father and the Son, the Eucharist as the flesh of the Lord, the Church as the body that abides in the Vine. Where Polycarp would carry the apostolic teaching forward as a quiet pastor for sixty years, Ignatius carried it forward as a fierce bishop and finally as a martyr in chains.
