Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr (IGNAZIO, VESCOVO DI ANTIOCHIA, MARTIRE)

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

IGNAZIO, Bishop of ANTIOCH, martyr. - Feast: Dec. 20 in the Greek Church, Feb. 1 in the Roman Church. I., condemned ad bestias (Irenaeus, Haeres., V, 28, 4), wrote seven letters during his transport from Antioch to Rome, admonishing the Christian communities with the authority of a charismatic (θεοφόρος) to be on guard against the danger of

Article illustration — (from D. Scano, *Chiese medioevali in Sardegna*, Cagliari 1929, tom. 78) IGLESIAS, DIOCESE of - Facade of the Cathedral (13th cent.).

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 [sic] letter was sent to Rome, with the purpose of preventing the intervention of the Roman Church in his favor (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., III, 36, 2, 6). From Troas he wrote to Philadelphia, Smyrna, and to the bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp (id., 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 (recensio brevior by W. Cureton) does not represent the original edition. An intensely original writer, probably more Greek than Semitic, I. uses literary devices (protreptic; hymn) with great freedom, but also with a certain nervous haste, likely dictated by circumstances. He too is acquainted, like the heretics, with gnosis, astrology, and magic (Ad Trall., 5, 2), but he knows that all this has ended with the appearance of Christ, who was truly born, was 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 possibly think of Satornilus, who taught in Antioch (Irenaeus, Haer., I, 18) and who spoke of a bodyless Christ who suffered only in appearance. Satornilus rejected the Old Testament prophets, whereas for I. the prophets were the disciples of Christ in His Descensus ad inferos (Magnes., 9, 2; Philad., 5, 2, 9, 2). Even the famous passage in Ad Ephes., 19, which speaks of the appearance of the new star in the sky, is likely a polemic against gnostic formulations, not 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 him in Smyrn., 8, 2) and to its hierarchy. Without the bishop, neither the Eucharist (op. cit., 8) nor Baptism is valid, and the agape (ibid.) and Marriage must be contracted before him (Polic., 3, 2). The Eucharist is the flesh of the suffering Christ (Smyrn., 7, 1), food of immortality (Eph. 20, 2) and Christ man and God, born and unborn (ibid. 7, 2), Word issued 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 foundational and charitable activity of Rome (3, 1) and presupposes the exercise of the apostolic activity of Peter and Paul in Rome.

BIBL.: Ed. in the editions of the Apostolic Fathers in: J. B. Lightfoot, The apostolic Fathers, 2nd ed., Oxford 1890; F. X. Funk, Patres apostolici, Tübingen 1901. Minor ed. by H. Bihmeyer, Tübingen 1924. Syriac text of a Pseudo-Ignatius in A. Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies, I, Cambridge 1927, p. 27 ff. Monographs: Th. Zahn, Ignatius von Antiochia, Leipzig 1873; M. Rackl, Die Christologie des hl. I., Freiburg 1914; H. Schlier, Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu den Ignatiusbriefen, Gießen 1929; C. C. Richardson, The christianity of I., New York 1935; W. H. Bartsch, Gnostisches Gut und Gemeindetradition bei I., Gütersloh 1940; Chr. Maurer, I. von Antiochien und das Johannes-evangelium, Zurich 1949. Italian translations by P. Baldencini, Rome 1912; by M. Belli, 2nd ed., Lanciano 1920; by U. Moricca, Rome 1923; by M. Monachesi, ibid. 1929; by G. Bosio, I Padri apostolici, II, Turin 1942. Erik Peterson