IRENAEUS, Saint. — Bishop of Lyons, b. c. 135-40, d. c. 200; feast day 28 June.
I. LIFE
Few historically certain details are known about the life of St Irenaeus. Most probably he was a native of Smyrna or its environs. In his childhood, as he himself attests (Adv. haer., III, 3-4; Ep. ad Flor., in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., V, 20, 4-8), he saw and heard St Polycarp, the famous bishop of that city and a disciple of St John. It is commonly believed that in his youth, still in Asia Minor, he formed personal relationships with other eyewitnesses of the Apostles. In 177 or 178, during the persecution under Marcus Aurelius, he was in Lyons as a priest of that Church; and as such he was entrusted by the martyrs with a letter to Pope Eleutherius concerning Montanism (Eusebius, loc. cit., V, 4, 1). After the martyrdom of Bishop Pothinus, who was almost ninety years old, which occurred in 178, Irenaeus succeeded him in the see of Lyons. In the Quartodeciman controversy, which provoked a heated dispute between Pope Victor (189-99) and the churches of Asia Minor, Irenaeus distinguished himself as a peacemaker (Eusebius, loc. cit., V, 24, 9).II. WORKS
Although he had learned to speak the “barbarous” language—Latin or Celtic—of his adopted country (Adv. Haer., I, praef. 3), Irenaeus remained a writer in Greek and a man of Hellenistic culture. His literary activity, which was quite varied, is exclusively polemical and apologetic in character. Part of his works is lost (De cognitione adversus graecos, De schismate ad Blastum, and others). The following, however, remain: 1) De detectione et eversione falso cognominatae gnoseos, better known by the title Adversus haereses. The work comprises five books: Book I sets out the various Gnostic systems; the next three refute them respectively on the grounds of reason, tradition and the teaching of the Apostles, and the sayings of the Lord and the prophets; Book V determines the doctrinal points that highlight the meaning and destiny of the corporeal world, above all of the flesh, which Gnosticism particularly targets. A considerable number of Greek fragments of the original work survive. The entire work is preserved in a strictly literal Latin translation, which may date from the 3rd century and certainly predates St Augustine. Books II, IV and V also survive in an accurate Armenian translation, and about twenty fragments in Syriac. 2) Demonstratio apostolica praedicationis, preserved in an Armenian version. This is not a polemical work, nor, as is often said, a catechesis, but an apology for the principal Christian truths based on the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. 3) Fragments of various writings, chiefly: a letter addressed to his friend from youth, the Roman priest Florinus, who had turned to Gnosticism (Eusebius, op. cit., V, 20), and the letter to Pope Victor on the date of Easter (loc. cit., 24).III. THOUGHT
Irenaeus provided the best and most original refutation of Gnosticism; in this lies his greatest importance for the period in which he wrote. Yet his work far surpasses the circumstances that provoked it and retains lasting value, both for the richness of its information and for the importance of its doctrine.Regarding the material collected in Adversus haereses, he described the systems of the principal Gnostic leaders or related heresiarchs, such as Valentinus, Marcus, Simon, Menander, Saturninus, Basilides, Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Cerdon, Marcion, Tatian, and the doctrines of several sects, such as the Ebionites, Nicolaites, Ophites, Cainites and others. Not all of this information is of equal value: that concerning the origins and early stages of the evolution of the different sects must be treated with caution, while it becomes increasingly clear, in the light of the discovery of authentically Gnostic documents, that Irenaeus was well informed about Gnostic doctrines as they presented themselves in the second half of the 2nd century.
The doctrinal expositions of Adversus haereses, despite their rather weak form and frequent digressions and repetitions that are often tedious, nonetheless reveal a firm and coherent, if not systematic, thought. Three fundamental themes can be discerned in Irenaeus: that of the Church, that of the corporeal world and human flesh, and that of recapitulation. The first theme connects to the well-known views of Irenaeus on the doctrinal authority of the Church, the rules of faith, the succession of bishops, the apostolicity of particular Churches, especially the Church of Rome; the famous text in Adv. haer. (III, 3, 1) on the “potentior principalitas” of the Church of Peter and Paul still tests the sagacity of exegetes. The theme of the corporeal world inspires almost all of Irenaeus’s other doctrinal developments; indeed it is precisely with regard to matter, and especially the flesh of man, that in Book V of Adv. haer. he successively examines the doctrines of the unity of the Creator, of creation, of the Incarnation and of the salvation of the whole man. But the master idea that truly guides and dominates all of Irenaeus’s speculations is that of the recapitulation of human flesh and of the entirety of the material world in Christ, the prototype of humanity and the initial exemplar of creation; this grand conception embraces both the hidden designs of God and their historical realization through the redemptive Incarnation of Christ; within it are inscribed the theses dear to Irenaeus of Christ as the new Adam, of Mary as the new Eve, of the deification of the whole man through grace, and of his final salvation in a completely restored material world. Only one passage somewhat mars this fine synthesis, namely that on millenarianism proposed in Adv. haer. (V, 32-35); it is significant, however, that recent studies on this subject cast doubt on the authenticity of these chapters, which in any case do not perfectly accord with the doctrine of recapitulation or with Irenaeus’s usual style.