WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Cloud of Witnesses - Episode 2: St. Ignatius of Antioch

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

In this week's episode, Dominic and Marc walk through the life and teachings of St. Ignatius of Antioch.

Welcome back to Cloud of Witnesses, where we bring you the stories of the saints who helped shape the church. My name is Dominic Toronto. And I'm Mark Ayers. And we are so happy to be back with you guys bringing you the story and the teachings of another one of our favorite saints. Mark, who do we have up this week? This week we're talking about Ignatius of Antioch, an early Christian writer and one of the first patriarchs of Antioch. That's awesome. Yeah, he's a heavyweight.

There's a lot of really interesting stuff about both his life, but also his writings because they were all so early, the early second century. So it's really helpful doing sort of historical theology, seeing a bunch of his writings, sort of plant the seeds for what becomes more fleshed out and developed Christian doctrine. So you guys hopefully know the drill from last week. But what we're going to do is Mark is going to give you guys a brief rundown of his life. then I'll take over to tell you a little bit about his teachings and his writings. So without further ado, Mark, take it away. Absolutely, Dom. So San Ignatius of Antioch, very little is known about his early life.

We don't have any historical writings on him until pretty much after he becomes a bishop. What we do have is tradition. And tradition tells us that he had the title of Godbearer or Theophorus. Now, we got this title because, of a tradition that when our Lord was teaching his disciples humility, he took a child and placed him among them, saying, whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. You will know this as Matthew 184. Yeah. According to tradition, that child was Ignatius. Really? Really? Oh, wow. That's really cool.

And now this is possible because according to Eusebius, Ignatius died in the year 108. So it is possible that he lived during that time period, and he would have been a small child. Yeah. Now, on that date, on that date of his death, there is a little bit of disagreement. Some more modern historians claim to see some indication in his writing that he may have had contact with a Gnostic who was only active in the 130s. So potentially he died later on closer to mid-century. But most of the ancient sources that we have, in fact, all of the ancient sources that we have on Ignatius, claimed that he died under the reign of the Emperor Trajan, who ruled until 117.

Okay. According to tradition, Ignatius was a disciple of St. John the Apostle, according with his friend, Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, also in order. Later on, Ignatius was chosen to serve as Bishop of Antioch. The fourth century church historian Eusebius writes that he succeeded Evodius, but Theodorus of Cyrus claims that St. Peter himself left directions for Ignatius to be appointed to the Episcopal C. Oh, really?

That's right, Dom. As Bishop of Antioch, Ignatius was the first to actually introduce antiphonal chanting into the church, in which the two choirs alternate the chanting. Oh, really? That's right, yeah. This manner of chanting, according to tradition, was revealed to St. Ignatius by the angels in heaven. That's really cool, because, yeah, antifinal chanting is still practiced, like, today. To this day.

It's so... Across denominations, actually. So that's like a liturgical tradition that has sort of a 1900-year history. Oh, yes. That's really cool. Now, Ignatius is one of the earliest martyrs, and the story of his martyrdom is actually quite interesting. So while Emperor Trajan was passing through Antioch on his way to do battle with the Persians, he heard about Ignatius, and he summoned him, and he counseled him to offer sacrifice to the Roman idols.

If Ignatius would do so, so they say, Trajan would bestow. upon him the rank of senator, Roman senator. I mean, that was, that's a prestigious thing. Yeah. And would have been helpful for him, like, as a bishop, too. He would have been able to sort of leverage that to, you know, help persecuted Christians in the area. As the councils and the threats of the emperor were in vain, St. Ignatius was shackled and irons and sent to Rome in the company of ten merciless soldiers to be thrown to the wild beasts. This is very interesting. So at that time, early on, uh, those who were persecuted for being Christians, all the other examples we have, they're persecuted

locally. It's a local persecution. It's by the governor or the magistrate of the area. You don't have Christians being shipped across the Roman Empire to be executed in this sort of spectacle. This seems to be a special exception to that, which I suppose would make sense if the emperor himself decreed your death. It's also interesting that he was condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts because Roman citizens would be executed by beheading, not by torture. Yeah. It's also interesting that he was put in chains on the journey because it's against Roman law

for a citizen to be put in chains during an appeal to the emperor, if that's what was happening. Okay. Which those two facts, the indications that we have that he may not have been a citizen make Trajan's offer to make him a senator all the more incredible. Yeah. Because, I mean, can you imagine being a non-Roman citizen and being put to the rank of senator? Yeah.

I mean, how tempting must that have been? Jeez, yeah. But in the end, according to Eusebius, Jerome, and John Chrysostom, who we talked about last week, Eusebius was thrown to the lions in the Coliseum itself. He was martyred in the year 108, according to Eusebius, and it said that the lions tore him to pieces completely and devoured him. and they left only some of the larger bones and interestingly his heart. Oh, really? That seems like a kind of a strange thing to leave uneaten if you are a wild lion.

That's absolutely right. The tradition holds that he was such a lover of God that the lions would not even touch his heart. Wow, that's pretty amazing. And then, yeah, we're going to talk a little bit about sort of the theology behind martyrdom in a couple weeks when we talk about St. Polycarp. Absolutely. And then again, later on in March, when we talk about the 40 martyrs of Sebast.

But there's a whole sort of theology behind, you know, what it means to be a martyr. No, it was so highly venerated back in the early Christian times because of people like Ignatius and Polycarp, as you mentioned. It was perhaps the highest honor that one could achieve as an early Christian at the time. Yeah. To like participate in the suffering of Christ in that way, in that martyrdom. And of course, we'll talk about that later. Yeah. But so that's about all that we have for Ignatius.

His history is shrouded in tradition and, and very little is known for certain, at least, you know, by modern historical standards. But what we can say is that he was a faithful member of his flock in Antioch. That's pretty cool. Sorry. But what we can say is that he was a faithful leader of his flock in Antioch. Sweet. Yeah, he's one of the heavy weights. Martyrdom is, I think, a lot of times glorified,

and to a certain extent rightly so. But there's also, you know, most people sort of forget in the whole glory of what it is, how terrible it also is. Oh, absolutely. Like getting taken from Antioch all the way to Rome in chains, and then having to, you know, get eaten alive by lions is not very fun.

To say the least. Yeah. Yeah, so like sort of the dating of St. Ignatius' Feastay, like we sort of ran into last with St. John Chrysostom is not, again, unified across all, you know, denominations who celebrate St. Ignatius. Like St. John Chrysostom, St. Ignatius is celebrated by basically everyone who does some sort of, you know, celebration of saints in their liturgy. In the West, his feast day is typically February 1st, which is why we're doing him this week. And that's the general Roman calendar, sort of adopted also by Lutherans and Anglicans and stuff like that. That's from the 12th century through to 1969. And that's, again, yeah, the general Roman calendar. Right now,

the Roman calendar and the Church of England and the Lutherans, celebrate him October 17th. But again, sort of the older dating in the West is February 1st. And there are still some more traditional Anglican communions that choose to celebrate him February 1st rather than October 17th. The Eastern Orthodox celebrate him December 20th. So now we're going to talk a little bit about his theology, theological writings. So the sort of big works of St. Ignatius of Antioch are his, his seven letters that he wrote in his journey from Antioch to Rome. He wrote seven epistles to various churches in the area. These are the epistles to the Ephesians, the Magnesians, the Tralians,

the Romans, the Philadelphians, the Smyrnaeans, and then he also wrote an epistle to polycarp. There's a lot of really interesting and fun stuff in these letters. Um, one of some, you know, a little bit of a shorter, uh, piece, but maybe sort of the most important, uh, in his writings. Um, he's one of the first people that we have to sort of explicitly, um, lay out a theology of Jesus Christ as being as being God. Oh, interesting. Um, which is, yeah, like as early as, you know, early, early second century. Um, right. I mean, this, you know, a disciple of John the apostle. Yeah. He's talking about Christ as God. This is. Yeah. He's not mincing words. He says in his letter to the Ephesians, There is one physician who is possessed both of flesh and spirit, both made and not made. God, existing in flesh, true life and death,

both of Mary and of God, first passable and then impassable, even Jesus Christ our Lord. It seems pretty straightforward to me, right? No, no, no ambiguity there. Yeah, he's definitely not mincing words. And then I want to spend most of the time focusing on a couple of his letters to the Philadelphia and then to the Smyrnaeans, sort of talking about the Eucharist and then the Episcopate.

His sort of, he's got a really sort of real, like spiritual realism that underlies both of these. And he sees both of them as being essentially one, essentially sort of unitive, because they are both participations in the one body of Christ. So in his letter to the Philadelphians, he writes, Every man who belongs to God in Jesus Christ stands by his bishop. But make no mistake, my brothers, the adherence of a schismatic can never inherit the kingdom of God. Those who wander in outlandish byways of doctrine must forfeit all parts in the Lord's passion. Later in that same letter, he says,

Thus, at the time I was with you, I cried out speaking with a loud voice, the very voice of God. be loyal to your bishop and clergy and deacons. No, that was the preaching of the spirit itself, telling you never act in the independence of the bishop. To keep your bodies as a temple of God, to cherish unity and shun divisions, and to be the imitators of Jesus Christ as he was of his father. Again, you know, he sort of hits this point home later again in the letter,

abjure all factions, for they are the beginning of evils. Follow your bishop, every one of you, as obediently. as Jesus Christ followed the Father. The sole Eucharist you should consider valid is one that is celebrated by the bishop himself. Where the bishop is to be seen, there let all his people be. Just as wherever Jesus Christ is present,

we have the Catholic faith. You are listening to Cloud of Witnesses on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. So, I mean, there's some pretty strong language there, right? Yeah, absolutely. Talking about that hierarchy so early on. Yeah. And the bishop as,

like really the center of the faith whom you know the faith will gather around and receive the word of Christ from that man that's that's that's incredibly interesting yeah and for him like the reason that this is the sort of the case is because the bishop is someone who is chosen by God for the good of the community he's not sort of someone who's standing between the congregation and God as sort of like a veil rather he's there sort of more like a bridge. Not because God sort of needs this, you know, absolutely, but because of human nature. Like human nature, we require community.

We require a certain, you know, physicalness and tangibility because we are embodied creatures that sort of this hierarchy, this clear sort of delineation is something that is ultimately for our benefit. Well, and bishops were often called shepherds of their flock. You know, it's kind of that imitation of the good shepherd. Yeah. You know, they stand as the leader of their group as a protector and as, yeah, you're right, not as a veil. It's not a closed-off relationship.

These are all members of the city of God, but, you know, to use the Augustinian phrase. Yeah. And yeah, and this point is, you know, this specific point about it being for the good community. He says, your bishop's office, which exists for the good of the whole community, was never obtained by his own. efforts, as I know very well, or by any other mere human agency, still less than any spirit of self-glorification, but it was conferred upon him by the love of God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, for St. Anaceous, the bishop is not someone who's chosen merely by men to help them sort of organize the church for practical reasons. He's not sort of like a president-elected

to preside over a body. Rather, the bishop is chosen by God himself to lead the church on his behalf. this is you know for san agnation this is essential to what it means to be the church the bishop is the marker of unity in the church of god those who are you know with him are with god and there's no way that one can live the christian life properly without being loyal to his bishop as is stated by like schismatics are not going to heaven dude like that seems kind of weird to sort of a lot of american christians who aren't used to this hierarchy but you know for him this is the center of christian life And yeah, and so this essential unity in the Episcopate is because there is one body of Christ. And he talks a little bit about, in these two letters, again, the Eucharist.

This, I think, is, you know, his writings here are, I think are really interesting because they're sort of not exactly what we would think of. For him, he just kind of took sort of Eucharistic realism, however you want to, you know, parse that out as a given and that all Christians sort of agreed on. In fact, he uses it to prove the incarnation. Oh, interesting. Yeah. So, like, rather than sort of for us, it seems that we go from incarnation to the Eucharist, for him, it's, you know, everyone agrees that we're eating someone's body. Right. But like, if it's not God's body, then why are we doing this? That's very interesting. Yeah, no, that's a total inversion of the modern conversation on the topic.

Yeah, he writes in his letter to the Smyrneans. i.e. the heretics who deny the incarnation, even absent themselves from the Eucharist and the public prayers, because they will not admit that the Eucharist is a self-same body of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father in his goodness afterwards raised up. Again later in the same letter, he says, The soldier Eucharist you should consider valid as one celebrated by the bishop himself or by some person authorized by him, i.e. a priest. Nor is it permissible to conduct baptisms or love feasts,

a Eucharist without the bishop. So again, the unity of the one Eucharist is incredibly important to St. Ignatius. As is the case of the bishops, there are not a bunch of different separate Eucharists that are celebrated. There's only one thing in which every instance of the Eucharist

is a participation in. And while he doesn't sort of cite this passage explicitly, it's kind of clear that in the background of his theology, he's sort of working with the Book of Fiatius. Hebrews. The reason that the Eucharist is only one is because it is the participation in the one body of Christ, which was sacrificed once and for all, for all our sins. And the letter to the Hebrews, the author of that book writes, but this man, i.e. Christ, after he had offered one

sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. St. Ignatius does make explicit reference to the fact of there being only one sacrifice, though. In his letter to the Philadelphians, he writes, make certain, therefore, that you will observe one common Eucharist. For there is but one body of our Lord Jesus Christ and but one cup of union with his blood and a single altar of sacrifice, even as also there is but one bishop with his clergy and my own fellow servitors, the deacons.

This will ensure that all your doings are in full of core with the will of God. So, like, unity in the church is, you know, central, you know, centered on the Eucharist, and it's essential for our salvation. Again, this passage that I just quoted comes just after the earlier passage about the impossibility of salvation for schismatics. The placement of the passage

is, I think, kind of telling, referring to the fact that, you know, being numbered with the schismatics for whom there's no salvation is something that we should fear, and in order to remedy that we have to cling tightly to the Eucharist,

which can only be celebrated by a bishop. Yeah, you get such a strong sense of unity and how important unity in the church and the faith and those quintessential matters were to the early church fathers. They stress it constantly. Yeah. No, yeah, it's really incredible. I think that his, you know, his, the spiritual sort of realism is sort of the, you know, catchphrase that I would put onto St. Ignatius's writings. They're really just, you know, I think a lot of, a lot of times sort of, I sort of fall into this, too, of forgetting the fact that our religion and our sort of practice on the day-to-day life is so steeped in sort of spiritual reality that we are in.

completely aware of. And so while to us it seems like, oh, you know, I'm going to, you know, I go to Holy Trinity on, you know, we're doing the Eucharist on this altar, that is sort of the same thing as those who are celebrating the Eucharist elsewhere. It is the same single participation in the one Jesus Christ who sacrifice himself once for all. There's just, you know, this amazing sense of deep and abiding. writing, you know, it's almost like physical, like it's tangible for St. Ignatius, what I just think is amazing. Yeah, no, I totally agree. Dom, that was really insightful. I appreciate your theological aspects. It's all what's so great to, you know, hear what they actually said and

believed. Yeah. It's always great. Yeah. Well, in recap, St. Ignatius, unknown birth date, died in 108 Bishop of Antioch according to tradition he was personally held by Jesus he was a disciple of St. John the Apostle. He was

martyred on personal order of the Emperor Trajan by being mauled to death by lions in the Colosseum yeah and what's the most important thing that Dom that you would say that he wrote yeah I think all

his letters are sort of, they're occasional letters so they're taken, you know, in certain contexts, but I think sort of a single threat if I were to trace it through all of them is just spiritual realism. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Well,

that's going to do it for us this week. Mark, see you next week. See you next week, Dom.