IGNAVIA. – “It is a tendency toward idleness or at least toward negligence and torpor in action” (A. Tanquerey, *Compendio di teologia ascetica e mistica*, 7th ed., Rome 1927, no. 884). It is sometimes a morbid disposition arising from poor health and should be treated by a physician; ordinarily, however, it is of a moral character and is caused by a weak will that
(see D. Seano, *Chiese medioevali in Sardegna*, Cagliari 1899, pl. 70)
IGLESIAS, DIOCESE OF – Façade of the Cathedral (13th century).
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH, ST. – Bishop and martyr, a disciple of the Apostles, and the second or third bishop of Antioch after St Peter. He was condemned to the beasts in Rome under Trajan (107–108 AD) and died a martyr. During his transfer from Antioch to Rome, he wrote seven letters to various Churches, which are of great importance for the history of early Christianity.
These letters aim to combat a Judaizing gnosis and to maintain ecclesiastical unity, represented by the bishops. The first four letters were dictated at Smyrna and were addressed to Ephesus, Magnesia, and Tralles. A fourth letter was sent to Rome with the aim of preventing the intervention of the Roman Church on his behalf (Eusebius, *Hist. eccl.*, III, 36, 5–6). From Troas he wrote to Philadelphia, Smyrna, and to the bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp (ibid., loc. cit., 10). These seven letters are authentic, while six others contained in the early editions of the works of I. are forgeries by a semi-Arian.
A Syriac recension of only three letters (the *recensio brevior* of W. Cureton) does not represent the original edition. An extremely original writer, probably more Greek than Semitic, I. employs literary devices (protreptic; etc.) with great freedom, though sometimes with a nervous haste, doubtless dictated by circumstances. Like the heretics, he is acquainted with gnosis, astrology, and magic (*Ad Trall.*, 5, 2), but he knows that all this has come to an end with the appearance of Christ, who was truly born, baptized, crucified, and rose from the dead (*op. cit.*, 9; *Magn.*, 11; *Smyrn.*, 1). His polemic is directed against the Docetists; the author of the heresy is not named, perhaps because he was still alive. One might think of Saturninus, who taught in Antioch (Irenaeus, *Haer.*, I, 18) and who spoke of a Christ without a body, who would have suffered only in appearance. Saturninus rejected the prophets of the Old Testament, whereas for I. the prophets were the disciples of Christ in his *Descensus ad inferos* (*Magn.*, 9, 2; *Philad.*, 5, 2; 9, 2). Even the famous passage in *Ad Ephes.*, 19, which speaks of the appearance of a new star in the sky, is probably polemical against Gnostic formulations rather than a genuine expression of I.’s own theological thought. I. is important as a witness to the tradition of the Catholic Church (the word is encountered for the first time in his writings at *Smyrn.*, 8, 2) and of its hierarchy. Without the bishop, the Eucharist is not valid (*op. cit.*, 8), and Baptism, the agape, and Marriage must be contracted in his presence (*Pol.*, 5, 2). The Eucharist is the flesh of Christ who suffered (*Smyrn.*, 7, 1), food of immortality (*Eph.*, 20, 2), and Christ, both man and God, born and unborn (*ibid.*, 7, 2), the Word who proceeded from the silence of the Father (*Magn.*, 8, 2). Famous is his praise of the Roman Church in the *Praefatio* to his Epistle to the Romans: the letter alludes to the instructive and charitable activity of Rome (3, 1) and supposes the exercise of the apostolic activity of Peter and Paul in Rome.