Feast: Saint Ignatius of Antioch: Bishop and Martyr

'Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church'.

GLADE PARK, Colorado (Catholic Online) - Saint Ignatius was the third bishop of Antioch, succeeding St. Evodius who was the immediate successor of St. Peter, and is accounted as an Apostolic Father by virtue of having been a hearer of the Apostle John.

About the year 110, during the time of the Emperor Trajan's reign (98-117), he was sentenced to a bloody death as food for wild beasts in the Flavian Amphitheater, and thus ordered to be brought to Rome. During his journey toward martyrdom, he wrote seven wonderful letters to the Christian communities at Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, and Smyrna. There is also a personal letter to Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna. Nearly everything we know of St. Ignatius is gleaned from these letters.

One important element of St. Ignatius' letters is the clear, firm articulation of the Church as a hierarchical institution of authority, with Christ as the Divine Head, the Pope or Bishop of Rome as the earthly head, and bishops as successors of the apostles. As it is true to say the Catholic Church is Christ's, it becomes necessary to submit to the Church as we would submit to Christ, thus we are to be obedient to the Magisterium.

What member of the body says to the body, "I will not assent to what the body is"? Of this St. Ignatius, in about 105 A.D., wrote: "You must all follow the bishop as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles. Reverence the deacons as you would the command of God. Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. . . . Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church" (Letter to the Smyrnaeans).

Note that it was St. Ignatius, a man of Antioch, who first wrote, so far as we know, of the term "Catholic Church", which is of special significance, as it was also at Antioch that the followers of Christ were first called Christians (see Acts 11:26).

In his letter to the Romans, we learn of St. Ignatius' love for Christ above all else, and of his firm belief in Christ's Real Presence within the Eucharist: "I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David, and for drink I desire His Blood, which is love incorruptible" (Letter to the Romans).

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In his boundless love for God, St. Ignatius pleads with his flock to make no attempts to stop his imminent martyrdom: "I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. . . . Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God's wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ's pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God" (excerpt, Cap. 4, 1-2; 6, 1-8, 3: Funk 1, 217-223).

What leads a man to such breathtaking heights of love? That we cannot arrive at such places on our own is true; yet our will must be aligned with God in order for Christ to show us such sublime secrets as love of suffering for Love. St. Teresa of Avila wrote, "Christ does not force our will, He takes only what we give Him. But He does not give Himself entirely until He sees we give ourselves entirely to Him."

When we look upon the Holy Trinity, we see giving in its fullness; we see perfect submission, obedience, union and love; when we gaze upon Christ, we see also these same elements clearly reflected in his Incarnation,saving life, passion and death. The Father loves his Son, the Son loves the Father, in that love is a complete and total self-giving, with the Holy Spirit proceeding from such fiery Love. If we are to understand such things, it is necessary to become like St. Ignatius; it is necessary to abandon the worldly, reject all wrongdoing, and reach for the heights by living a life of purity in submission to God.

It is clear that St. Ignatius reached such sublime places through his fervent love for Christ and dedication to His Bride, our holy Catholic Church. Truly we see that, through this fervent and dedicated love, St. Ignatius' heart was firmly transformed into pure love for Christ. Such wonders do not happen by road of dissent, but, rather, by the path of complete giving of self; a total and profound submission before God of mind, body, heart and soul.

After reading his letters, it becomes strikingly clear that St. Ignatius held a deep and profound love for the Lord's precepts in his heart, which led him to exhibit strong justice and holy righteousness. All of this, this deep concentration of his soul upon God, led him to an exalted place many in our society fail to attain: the desire to die for Christ. St. Ignatius must have pondered, "To live or to die?" yet found that calling from the depths of his soul leading from light into Light, love into Love, wherein he joyfully cried: "To die for Christ!"

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On his journey into the vast Colosseum built by Jewish captives, where he sought the pain and suffering to be inflicted upon him by wild beasts' teeth, presenting himself, as some thought, a strange spectacle, St. Ignatius wrote beautiful, sublime words which reflect a reality as high above the earth as the heavens:

"No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. . . . My love of this life has been crucified, and there is no yearning in me for any earthly thing. Rather within me is the living water which says deep inside me: 'Come to the Father'" - St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr.

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F. K. Bartels operates catholicpathways.com, and can be reached via email at: bartels@catholicpathways.com. He is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

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