Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

Ignatius was bishop of Antioch in Syria at the beginning of the 2nd century, by the ancient lists the second or third after the apostles. Under Emperor Trajan he was arrested and taken under a guard of ten soldiers, whom he called “ten leopards”, across Asia Minor to Rome to be thrown to the beasts. On the way, at Smyrna and Troas, he wrote seven letters that survive: to the churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia and Smyrna, and to Bishop Polycarp. In them he urged unity around the bishop, and he is the first known writer to speak of “the catholic Church”. To the Romans he wrote asking them not to try to save him: “I am the wheat of God, ground by the teeth of the beasts.” He died in Rome about 107.