Ignatius was the third Bishop of the Church of Antioch, Saint Peter the Apostle being the first. During the persecution under Trajan he was condemned to be devoured by wild beasts and was sent in chains to Rome. During this voyage, which was made by sea, he had to stop at Smyrna where Polycarp, the disciple of Saint John, was Bishop. From this city he wrote several Epistles: one to the Ephesians, a second to the Magnesians, a third to the Trallians, a fourth to the Romans. When he had left Smyrna, he addressed an Epistle to the Philadelphians and Smyrneans, and one to Polycarp himself, recommending to him his Church of Antioch. It is in this last named Letter that he quotes from the Gospel a passage bearing testimony to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. “From Syria,” he says, “even unto Rome, I am fighting with wild beasts, both by sea and land, both by night and day, for I am fastened to ten leopards, I mean, to the soldiers who have care of me. When I show them a kindness, they grow more brutal. Their injuries are my instruction, but I am not thereby justified. I long for the wild beasts that are prepared for me, which I heartily wish may rush on me, and torture me, and devour me, and not be afraid to touch me, as has happened with other martyrs. Nay, if they refuse to approach me, I will make them come on, I will rush upon them, that so they may devour me. Pardon me, my little children: I know what is for my own welfare. Now do I begin to be a disciple of Christ, and care for nothing in this world so that I may find Jesus. Let fire, or the cross, or wild beasts, or the breaking of my bones, or the cutting me to pieces, or the shattering of my whole body, yea, all the tortures of the devil — let them all come upon me, only let me enjoy my God.” When he was sentenced to be devoured by wild beasts and heard the roaring of the lions, his impatience to suffer made him exclaim: “I am the wheat of Christ — let me be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may become the pure bread.” He suffered in the eleventh year of Trajan’s reign.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Two days more and the happy season of Christmas will be over! This is the vigil of its termination, and lo! — there comes to gladden us one of the grandest Martyrs of the year — Ignatius surnamed the Theophorus, Bishop of Antioch. A venerable tradition tells us that this old man who so generously confessed the faith before Trajan was the child whom Jesus took into His arms and showed to His Disciples as a model of that simplicity which we must all have if we would enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Today he appears before us standing near the crib in which this same Jesus gives us His own divine lessons of humility and simplicity.
But in this the Court of our Emmanuel Ignatius stands near to Peter, for the Prince of the Apostles made him his second successor in his first See of Antioch. From so honoured a position Ignatius derived that courage which made him resist a powerful emperor even to his face, defy the wild beasts of the amphitheatre and triumph by a glorious martyrdom. As it were to show the supremacy of the See of Rome, Divine Providence willed that he, with his chains on him, should go to see Peter and finish his course in the Holy City, and thus mingle his blood with that of the Apostles. Rome would have been imperfect without the glory of Ignatius’ martyrdom, which is the pride of her Colosseum, rich as it is with the blood of so many thousands of Martyrs. Ignatius’ character is impetuosity of love for his God. He has but one fear — it is that the prayers of the Romans will stay the lions from devouring him, and his desire of being united to Christ be thus denied him. Let us admire this superhuman fortitude which shows itself thus suddenly amid the pagan world, and let us acknowledge that so ardent a love of God and so vehement a longing to possess Him could only have come from the accomplishment of the Mysteries of our Redemption which showed man how much God loved him. The crib of Bethlehem, even had there never been the Sacrifice of Calvary, would of itself be sufficient to convince us of all this. God comes down from Heaven for the sake of His creature, man. He Himself becomes Man, nay, a child, and is laid in a manger! Such miracles of love would have sufficed to save the guilty world. How, then, will they not have power to prompt men to give their whole heart to their loving God? And would it be too much if we made a sacrifice of our very lives to repay our Jesus for only that much of His love which He showed us by being born among us?
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All your desires were satisfied, O glorious Martyr! You have died for Jesus. You are with Jesus. Rome’s sons and daughters filled the Colosseum. Their savage joy made it tremble with their cheers as they saw you mangled by the lions. It was the hour you had prayed for — your sacrifice for Him who had sacrificed Himself for you is over, and your soul is buried in His divine embrace! Generous and impetuous lover of Christ! You were ambitious to pay your debt to the Crucified — the debt of suffering. It seemed to you that you had no right to His kingdom until you had repaid His Passion by some cruel tortures endured for Him. Worthy companion of Stephen, Sebastian, Vincent and Agnes! How rich and verdant is the palm you hold over your Jesus’ crib! Can you look upon us, weak Christian cowards, and not pity us? Pray for us that we may at least be faithful to our Lord when we are persecuted by the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil; that we may at least give our hearts to His service, if we are not to be permitted to give our bodies to be tortured for His Name. You were chosen, when a little child, as the model of the simplicity which our Saviour was teaching to His Disciples, and this innocence never left you. Ask for us from Him who is the King of little children that one of the graces of the Christmas we have been keeping may be this holy simplicity of heart.
Successor of Peter in the See of Antioch! Pray for the Churches of your Patriarchate that they may return to the true Faith and Catholic unity. Intercede for the Holy City of Rome which you watered with your blood, and which is now in possession of your sacred relics that were saved from the lions’ jaws. Watch over the maintenance of ecclesiastical discipline and order, of which you left such admirable rules in your Epistles, and obtain for the Church that all the members of her hierarchy may be united in the bonds of duty and love, that thus she may be beautiful in the strength of her unity and terrible to the enemies of God, as an army set in array (Canticles vi. 3).
