Saint Ignace d'Antioche : le Père de l'Église primitive qui aspirait à l'union avec le Christ

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St. Ignatius of Antioch with the child Jesus. / Credit: Lorenzo Lotto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Oct 17, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Oct. 17, the Roman Catholic Church remembers the early Church Father, bishop, and martyr St. Ignatius of Antioch, whose writings attest to the sacramental and hierarchical nature of the Church from its earliest days.

Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate his memory on Dec. 20.

In a 2007 general audience on St. Ignatius of Antioch, Pope Benedict XVI observed that “no Church Father has expressed the longing for union with Christ and for life in him with the intensity of Ignatius.”

In his letters, the pope said, “one feels the freshness of the faith of the generation which had still known the apostles. In these letters, the ardent love of a saint can also be felt.”

Born in Syria in the middle of the first century A.D., Ignatius is said to have been personally instructed — along with another future martyr, St. Polycarp — by the apostle John. When Ignatius became the bishop of Antioch around the year 70, he assumed leadership of a local Church that was, according to tradition, first led by St. Peter before his move to Rome.

Although St. Peter transmitted his papal primacy to the bishops of Rome rather than Antioch, the city played an important role in the life of the early Church. Located in present-day Turkey, it was a chief city of the Roman Empire and was also the location where the believers in Jesus’ teachings and his resurrection were first called “Christians.”

Ignace dirigea les chrétiens d'Antioche sous le règne de l'empereur romain Domitien, le premier des empereurs à proclamer sa divinité en adoptant le titre de « Seigneur et Dieu ». Les sujets qui refusaient de rendre un culte à l'empereur sous ce titre pouvaient être punis de mort. En tant que chef d'un diocèse catholique majeur durant cette période, Ignace fit preuve de courage et s'efforça de l'inspirer aux autres.

After Domitian’s murder in the year 96, his successor Nerva reigned briefly and was soon followed by the emperor Trajan. Under his rule, Christians were once again liable to death for denying the pagan state religion and refusing to participate in its rites. It was during his reign that Ignatius was convicted for his Christian testimony and sent from Syria to Rome to be put to death.

Escorted by a team of military guards, Ignatius nonetheless managed to compose seven letters: six to various local Churches throughout the empire (including the Church of Rome) and one to his fellow bishop Polycarp, who would give his own life for Christ several decades later.

Les lettres d'Ignace soulignaient avec passion l'importance de l'unité de l'Église, les dangers de l'hérésie et l'importance capitale de l'Eucharistie en tant que « remède d'immortalité ». Ces écrits contiennent la première description écrite survivante de l'Église comme « catholique », du mot grec indiquant à la fois l'universalité et la plénitude.

One of the most striking features of Ignatius’ letters is his enthusiastic embrace of martyrdom as a means to union with God and eternal life.

“All the pleasures of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, shall profit me nothing,” he wrote to the Church of Rome. “It is better for me to die on behalf of Jesus Christ than to reign over all the ends of the earth.”

« Maintenant, je commence à être un disciple », a déclaré l'évêque. « Que le feu et la croix ; que les foules de bêtes sauvages ; que les déchirures, les ruptures et les dislocations des os ; que la coupure des membres ; que les fracas de tout le corps ; et que tous les terribles tourments du diable s'abattent sur moi : pourvu seulement que j'atteigne Jésus-Christ. »

St. Ignatius of Antioch bore witness to Christ publicly for the last time in Rome’s Flavian Amphitheater, where he was mauled to death by lions.

“I am the wheat of the Lord,” he declared before facing them. “I must be ground by the teeth of these beasts to be made the pure bread of Christ.”

His memory was honored, and his bones venerated, soon after his death around the year 107.

This article was first published on Oct. 14, 2012, and has been updated.

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