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The Nephew of Christ
st. ignatius, pray for us
Mr. PSP
October 17, 2025
What must we do to inherit eternal life?
For all Christians, this is the question that consumes us.
On multiple occasions, Christ was asked this directly and seemed to provide a different answer each time.
Interestingly enough, one of the answers is to become childlike.
He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”
A similar image is described in Mark 9:36, except with the added detail of putting His arms around the child after placing it in their midst.
Despite the child remaining unnamed in Scripture, legend holds that it was none other than one of the earliest Church Fathers, St. Ignatius of Antioch, a direct disciple of St. John the Evangelist.
While this is disputed in modern scholarship, the timeline would definitely fit, as he was born around the year 30 AD in Antioch, not too far from Jerusalem where Christ performed His ministry.
During this time, Antioch was a curious mix of Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Phoenicians, having been Hellenized by the Greeks a few centuries earlier before falling under Roman control.
Christians were soon added to the mix after many relocated from Jerusalem in the years following St. Stephen’s martyrdom. The religion began to spread even more after Paul and Barnabas spent time evangelizing in the city.
Like most areas of the Roman Empire, it was only a matter of time before severe persecutions arose and Ignatius—the city’s bishop—found himself staring death face to face after being caught by the authorities.
the real trailblazers #romenotportland
Regarding Christians, Emperor Trajan had recently implemented something of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in which Christians weren’t necessarily hunted down, but if they were somehow identified as Christians, they would be given an opportunity to pledge allegiance to the Roman gods.
If they refused, they willingly accepted their death.
However, after military conquests expanded the empire well into Eastern Europe and the Middle East, it was in Trajan’s best interest to unify the empire religiously, thus sparking a harsher crackdown on Christianity.
Similar to the legend of Ignatius being embraced by Christ, another story that cannot be historically verified details the exchange between Ignatius and the emperor:
Trajan: “Who are you, wicked man, who transgress our commands and persuade others to do the same, so that they should miserably perish?”
Ignatius: “No one ought to call Theophorus [‘God-bearer’] wicked; for all evil spirits have departed from the servants of God. But if you call me wicked because I am an enemy to these evil spirits, I confess that I am and that by this name I overcome them.”
Trajan: “And who is Theophorus?”
Ignatius: “He who has Christ within his breast.”
Trajan: “Do you not mean him who was crucified under Pontius Pilate?”
Ignatius: “Yes — him who crucified my sin with him who invented it, and who has condemned all the deceit and malice of the devil under the feet of those who carry him in their hearts.”
Trajan: “Do you then carry within you him who was crucified?”
Ignatius: “Yes, for it is written, ‘I will dwell in them and walk in them.’”
Trajan: “We command that Ignatius, who affirms that he carries within him the one who was crucified, be bound by soldiers and taken to the great city of Rome, there to be devoured by the beasts, for the entertainment of the people.”
Ignatius: “I thank you, O Lord, that you have vouchsafed to honor me with a perfect love toward You, and have made me bound with iron chains like your Apostle Paul.”
Going even further, he urged his fellow Christians not to plan his escape:
“[don’t] show an untimely kindness to me…allow me to become food for wild beasts, through whom I will be allowed to make it to God. I am the wheat of God…let me be ground by teeth of the wild beasts, so I may be found to be the pure bread of the Christ.”
ignatius = romans 14:8 personified
While being escorted from Antioch to Rome by Roman soldiers for execution, Ignatius stopped in several cities in Asia Minor, writing his famous seven letters to the six churches of Philadelphia, Ephesus, Tralles, Magnesia, Smyrna, and Rome, as well as to his good friend and fellow student of St. John, St. Polycarp of Smyrna.
The structure and voice of his letters are eerily similar to the Pauline epistles, as he discusses a variety of topics with a heavy emphasis on the importance of unity, avoiding heresy, necessity of bishops and presbyters (priests), and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
For all of the claims asserting the early Church “definitely wasn’t Catholic,” his writings seem to point in a different direction.
In fact, his writings so clearly vindicate Catholic teachings that many Reformers simply claimed they were forgeries.
“Nothing can be more nauseating, than the absurdities which have been published under the name of Ignatius; and therefore, the conduct of those who provide themselves with such masks for deception is the less entitled to toleration.”
With this in mind, we’ll take a look at some excerpts from his works, broken down into different topics.
Unity through Bishops / Presbyters
“Let no man deceive himself: if any one be not within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two possesses such power, how much more that of the bishop and the whole Church! … Do ye, beloved, be careful to be subject to the bishop, and the presbyters and the deacons. For he that is subject to these is obedient to Christ, who has appointed them; but he that is disobedient to these is disobedient to Christ Jesus.”
“Do ye all come together in common, and individually, through grace, in one faith of God the Father and of Jesus Christ His only-begotten Son, being under the guidance of the Comforter, in obedience to the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote which prevents us from dying, but a cleansing remedy that we should live in God through Jesus Christ.”
“As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him, neither by Himself nor by the apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and presbyters. Neither endeavour that anything appear reasonable and proper to yourselves apart; but being come together into the same place, let there be one prayer, one supplication, one mind, one hope, in love and in joy undefiled. There is one Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is more excellent. Do ye therefore all run together as into one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from one Father, and is with and has gone to one.”
Avoiding Heresy / False Teachers
“Be not deceived with strange doctrines, "nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies," and things in which the Jews make their boast. "Old things are passed away: behold, all things have become new."For if we still live according to the Jewish law, and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace. For the divinest prophets lived according to Jesus Christ. On this account also they were persecuted, being inspired by grace to fully convince the unbelieving that there is one God, the Almighty, who has manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His Son, who is His Word, not spoken, but essential.”
“I therefore, yet not I, out the love of Jesus Christ, "entreat you that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment." For there are some vain talkers and deceivers, not Christians, but Christ-betrayers, bearing about the name of Christ in deceit, and "corrupting the word" of the Gospel; while they intermix the poison of their deceit with their persuasive talk, as if they mingled aconite with sweet wine, that so he who drinks, being deceived in his taste by the very great sweetness of the draught, may incautiously meet with his death.”
“But if any one preach the Jewish law unto you, listen not to him. For it is better to hearken to Christian doctrine from a man who has been circumcised, than to Judaism from one uncircumcised…If anyone preaches the one God of the law and the prophets, but denies Christ to be the Son of God, he is a liar, even as also is his father the devil, and is a Jew falsely so called, being possessed of mere carnal circumcision. If any one confesses Christ Jesus the Lord, but denies the God of the law and of the prophets, saying that the Father of Christ is not the Maker of heaven and earth, he has not continued in the truth any more than his father the devil, and is a disciple of Simon Magus, not of the Holy Spirit.”
The Eucharist
“Take heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to show forth the unity of His blood; one altar, as there is one bishop, with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants, that so whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according to God.”
“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again.”
The Catholic Church
“Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”
Uncoincidentally, Ignatius is the first to coin the term “Catholic Church” and hails from the same city the followers of Christ are first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26).
On this Feast Day of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, we thank God for establishing the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.
Thanks for reading and until next time.
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