IGNATIUS, 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 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 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 first editions of I.'s works, are forgeries of a semi-Arian.
A Syriac recension of only three letters (recensio brevior of W. Cureton) does not represent the original edition. A highly original writer, probably more Greek than Semite, I. makes use of literary devices (prot reptic; hymn) with great freedom, but also with a certain nervous haste, probably dictated by circumstances. He too knows, like the heretics, 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, 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 at Antioch (Irenaeus, Haer., 1, 18) and who spoke of a Christ without a body, who would have suffered only in appearance. Satornilus rejected the prophets of the Old Testament, 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 that speaks of the appearance of the new star in the sky is probably 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 occurs for the first time in his writings in Smyrn., 8, 2) and of its hierarchy. Without the bishop the Eucharist is not valid (op. cit., 8), and Baptism, the agape (ibid.), and Matrimony must be contracted before him (Polyc., 3, 2). The Eucharist is the flesh of Christ who suffered (Smyrn., 7, 1), the food of immortality (Eph. 20, 2), and Christ is man and God, born and unborn (ibid. 7, 2). The Word come forth 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 instituting and charitable activity of Rome (3, 1) and presupposes the exercise of the apostolic activity of Peter and Paul at Rome.
Bibliography11 works
Erik Peterson