Saints
“Theophorus, Disciple of John”
Bishop of Antioch · Disciple of the Theologian · Apostolic Father
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.
His life
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.
He succeeded the Apostle Peter and Evodius as bishop of Antioch, the city where the disciples were first called Christians. For some forty years he led the Antiochene church through the last decades of the apostolic generation.
In the persecution under the emperor Trajan he was condemned to die at Rome. Bound and guarded by ten soldiers whom he called 'ten leopards', he was taken overland through Asia Minor. At each stop the local churches sent delegations to comfort him, and he wrote to them in return: to the Ephesians, the Magnesians, the Trallians, the Romans, the Philadelphians, the Smyrneans, and to Polycarp of Smyrna, his fellow disciple of John.
He was martyred in the Colosseum, devoured by lions, around the year 108. The seven letters are the earliest patristic writings outside the New Testament, and witness to the eucharistic theology, the threefold ministry of bishop, presbyter, and deacon, and the unity of the Church around her bishop. Through Ignatius and Polycarp, and through Polycarp's own disciple Irenaeus of Lyons, the chain from John to the Fathers is visible at every link.
In his own words
I am the wheat of God, and I am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of Christ.
Writings
From his own letters and the witness of Polycarp, Irenaeus, Origen, and Eusebius
A careful four-section vita drawn from documented public-domain sources in order of antiquity: Ignatius's own letters as autobiographical witness (Lightfoot 1885-1890, ANF 1885); Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians IX and XIII; Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.28.4; Origen, Homily VI on Luke; and Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History III.22, III.36, IV.14-15 (McGiffert NPNF 1890). The Theophorus-as-the-child-of-Matt.18 legend is identified as a ninth-century Symeon-Metaphrastes addition rather than as biography; the later Martyrium Ignatii is named in its place as a fifth- or sixth-century devotional composition.
Open work →
c. 107
On the bishop, the bread, and the silent God
The longest and earliest of the seven letters. Onesimus is bishop, the Eucharist is the medicine of immortality, and the Incarnation is one of the three mysteries wrought in silence by God.
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c. 107
On the youthful bishop and against the Sabbath
Ignatius praises the Magnesians for honoring their bishop Damas despite his youth, warns against living after the Sabbath rather than the Lord's Day, and presses the corpus's theme that the bishop is the visible center of unity.
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c. 107
Against the Docetic denial of Christ's flesh
A short refutation of those who taught that Christ only seemed to suffer. Ignatius answers that his own real chains are unintelligible if Christ's passion was only an appearance.
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c. 107
On the road to martyrdom
The fiercest of the seven letters: Ignatius begs the Roman Christians not to intervene to spare him from the wild beasts.
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c. 107
On the bishop's silence, and the one altar of the Church
Written from Troas after Ignatius heard of disorder at Philadelphia. The opening passage on the silence of the bishop, "by his silence he is able to accomplish more than those who vainly talk", became a patristic touchstone on the spiritual authority of restraint.
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c. 107
On the truly suffering and risen flesh of Christ
The most explicit Ignatian witness to the bodily resurrection. Quotes the risen Lord's words to those with Peter ("Lay hold, handle me, and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit") and condemns those who deny the real flesh of Christ in the Eucharist.
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c. 107
A bishop writes to a bishop
The seventh and shortest of the letters, written to Polycarp, Ignatius's fellow disciple of the Apostle John. Less a doctrinal letter than a pastoral charge: be diligent, do not be moved by those who teach strange doctrine, bear the infirmities of all, marry in the Lord, honour the slaves of God.
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Licensed Works
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Greek Texts and English Translations, 3rd ed.
Edited by Michael W. Holmes
Baker Academic · 2007
The standard scholarly diglot of the earliest sub-apostolic writings, including Ignatius's seven authentic letters, to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrnaeans, and Polycarp, written on the way to martyrdom.
Events during this saint's life
Explore the interactive timeline →Holy St. Ignatius of Antioch, pray to God for us.