Saint of the Issue: Ignatius of Antioch

St. Ignatius of Antioch was one of the disciples of St. John the Apostle in the first century A.D., and was eventually made Bishop of Antioch during a time of great persecution by the pagan Roman Empire. Jealously protecting his flock from assaults by Emperor Domitian, he preserved the church of Antioch from breaking under the assault of the Romans. Living an exemplary and holy life, by prayer, penance, and preaching, he preserved his church from the ongoing persecution. In 107 A.D., the Emperor Trajan came to Antioch and, finding the pious saint, arrested him and demanded his apostasy, offering St. Ignatius many worldly gifts in exchange for abandoning Christ and the Holy Catholic Church.

Rather than abandoning the Faith of the Apostles, St. Ignatius chose instead to pursue the crown of martyrdom in union with Christ crucified. According to Butler’s Lives of the Saints, he rejected Trajan’s offer to become a priest to the false god Jupiter, and proclaimed the truth of the Gospel to the emperor, asking, “what could such honors matter to me, a priest of Christ, who offer Him every day a sacrifice of praise, and am ready to offer myself to Him also?” After several days of dispute with the emperor of Rome, St. Ignatius was sentenced to a public death in Rome by being fed to lions.

On his long journey to Rome, St. Ignatius wrote his famous seven letters — comforting, advising, and strengthening the local churches which lay upon the road to Rome. He also wrote a letter to St. Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna (who was later murdered by the same anti-Catholic regime), encouraging him in the care of his own church. The beginning of his “Epistle to Polycarp” contains simple wisdom which should be recalled often by all who call themselves Christian.

He writes, “I entreat you, by the grace with which you are clothed, to press forward in your course, and to exhort all that they may be saved. Maintain your position with all care, both in the flesh and spirit. Have a regard to preserve unity, than which nothing is better. Bear with all, even as the Lord does with you. Support all in love, as also you do. Give yourself to prayer without ceasing. Implore additional understanding to what you already have. Be watchful, possessing a sleepless spirit. Speak to every man separately, as God enables you. Bear the infirmities of all, as being a perfect athlete [in the Christian life]: where the labor is great, the gain is all the more.”

Upon arriving at the place of his martyrdom in Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch is said to have prayed the following words as he was about to be torn apart by lions:

I am the wheat of God,

And am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts,

That I may be found the pure bread of God.

I long after the Lord,

The Son of the true God and Father, Jesus Christ.

Him I seek, who died for us and rose again.

I am eager to die for the sake of Christ.

My love has been crucified,

And there is no fire in me that loves anything.

But there is living water springing up in me,

And it says to me inwardly,

“Come to the Father.”

St. Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us!