The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

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The ardor of divine love which the saint breathes throughout this
letter, is as inflamed as the subject is extraordinary. In it he writes:
"I fear your charity, lest it prejudice me: for it is easy for you to do
what you please; but it will be difficult for me to attain unto God if
you spare me. I shall never have such an opportunity of enjoying God:
nor can you, if ye shall now be silent, ever be entitled to the honor of
a better work. For if ye be silent in my behalf, I shall be made
partaker of God; but if ye love my body, I shall have my course to run
again. Therefore, a greater kindness you cannot do me, than to suffer me
to be sacrificed unto God, while the altar is now ready; that so
becoming a choir in love, in your hymns ye may give thanks to the Father
by Jesus Christ, that God has vouchsafed to bring me, the bishop of
Syria, from the East unto the West, to pass out of the world unto God,
that I may rise again unto him. Ye have never envied any one. Ye have
taught others. I desire, therefore, that you will firmly observe that
which in your instructions you have prescribed to others. Only pray for
me, that God would give me both inward and outward strength, that I may
not only say, but do: that I may not only be called a Christian, {329}
but be found one: for if I shall be found a Christian, I may then
deservedly be called one; and be thought faithful, when I shall no
longer appear to the world. Nothing is good that is seen. A Christian is
not a work of opinion, but of greatness, when he is hated by the world.
I write to the churches, and signify to them all, that I am willing to
die for God, unless you hinder me. I beseech you that you show not an
unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to be the food of wild
beasts, whereby I may attain unto God: I am the wheat of God, and I am
to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the
pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the beasts to my sepulchre, that
they may leave nothing of my body, that, being dead, I may not be
troublesome to any. Then shall I be a true disciple of Jesus Christ,
when the world shall not see so much as my body. Pray to Christ for me,
that in this I may become a sacrifice to God. I do not, as Peter and
Paul, command you; they were apostles, I am an inconsiderable person:
they were free, I am even yet a slave. But if I suffer, I shall then
become the freeman of Jesus Christ, and shall arise a freeman in him.
Now I am in bonds for him, I learn to have no worldly or vain desires.
From Syria even unto Rome, I fight with wild beasts, both by sea and
land, both night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, to a band of
soldiers; who are the worse for kind treatment. But I am the more
instructed by their injuries; yet am I not thereby justified.[6] I
earnestly wish for the wild beasts that are prepared for me, which I
heartily desire may soon dispatch me; whom I will entice to devour me
entirely and suddenly, and not serve me as they have done some whom they
have been afraid to touch; but if they are unwilling to meddle with me,
I will even compel them to it.[7] Pardon me this matter, I know what is
good for me. Now I begin to be a disciple. So that I have no desire
after any thing visible or invisible, that I may attain to Jesus Christ.
Let fire, or the cross, or the concourse of wild beasts, let cutting or
tearing of the flesh, let breaking of bones and cutting off limbs, let
the shattering in pieces of my whole body, and all the wicked torments
of the devil come upon me, so I may but attain to Jesus Christ. All the
compass of the earth, and the kingdoms of this world, will profit me
nothing. It is better for me to die for the sake of Jesus Christ, than
to rule unto the ends of the earth. Him I seek who died for us: Him I
desire who rose again for us. He is my gain at hand. Pardon me,
brethren: be not my hinderance in attaining to life, for Jesus Christ is
the life of the faithful; while I desire to belong to God, do not ye
yield me back to the world. Suffer me to partake of the pure light. When
I shall be there, I shall be a man of God. Permit me to imitate the
passion of Christ my God. If any one has him within himself, let him
consider what I desire, and let him have compassion on me, as knowing
how I am straitened. The prince of this world endeavors to snatch me
away, and to change the desire with which I burn of being united to God.
Let none of you who are present attempt to succor me. Be rather on my
side, that is, on God's. Entertain no desires of the world, having Jesus
Christ in your mouths. Let no envy find place in your breasts. Even were
I myself to entreat you when present, do not obey me; but rather believe
what I now signify to you by letter. Though I am alive at the writing of
this, yet my desire is to die. My love is crucified. The fire that is
within me does not crave any water; but being alive and springing
within, says: Come to the Father. I take no pleasure in the food of
corruption, nor in the pleasure of this life. I desire {330} the bread
of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, and for drink, his blood,
which is incorruptible charity. I desire to live no longer according to
men; and this will be, if you are willing. Be, then, willing, that you
may be accepted by God. Pray for me that I may possess God. If I shall
suffer, ye have loved me: if I shall be rejected, ye have hated me.
Remember in your prayers the church of Syria, which now enjoys God for
its shepherd instead of me. I am ashamed to be called of their number,
for I am not worthy, being the last of them, and an abortive: but
through mercy I have obtained that I shall be something, if I enjoy
God." The martyr gloried in his sufferings as in the highest honor, and
regarded his chains as most precious jewels. His soul was raised above
either the love or fear of any thing on earth; and, as St. Chrysostom
says, he could lay down his life with as much ease and willingness as
another man could put off his clothes. He even wished, every step of his
journey, to meet with the wild beasts; and though that death was most
shocking and barbarous, and presented the most frightful ideas,
sufficient to startle the firmest resolution; yet it was incapable of
making the least impression upon his courageous soul. The perfect
mortification of his affections appears from his heavenly meekness; and
he expressed how perfectly he was dead to himself and the world, living
only to God in his heart, by that admirable sentence: "My love is
crucified."[8] To signify, as he explains himself afterwards, that his
appetites and desires were crucified to the world, and to all the lusts
and pleasures of it.

The guards pressed the saint to leave Smyrna, that they might arrive at
Rome before the shows were over. He rejoiced exceedingly at their hurry,
desiring impatiently to enjoy God by martyrdom. They sailed to Troas,
where he was informed that God had restored peace to his church at
Antioch: which freed him from the anxiety he had been under, fearing
lest there should be some weak ones in his flock. At Troas he wrote
three other letters, one to the church of Philadelphia, and a second to
the Smyrnaeans, in which he calls the heretics who denied Christ to have
assumed true flesh, and the Eucharist to be his flesh, wild beasts in
human shape; and forbids all communication with them, only allowing them
to be prayed for, that they may be brought to repentance, which is very
difficult. His last letter is addressed to St. Polycarp, whom he exhorts
to labor for Christ without sparing himself; for the measure of his
labor will be that of his reward.[9] The style of the martyr everywhere
follows the impulses of a burning charity, rather than the rules of
grammar, and his pen is never able to express the sublimity of his
thoughts. In every word there is a fire and a beauty not to be
paralleled: every thing is full of a deep sense. He everywhere breathes
the most profound humility and contempt of himself as an abortive, and
the last of men; a great zeal for the church, and abhorrence of schisms:
the most ardent love of God and his neighbor, and tenderness for his own
flock: begging the prayers of all the churches in its behalf to whom he
wrote, and entreating of several that they would send an embassy to his
church at Antioch, to comfort and exhort them. The {331} seven epistles
of this apostolic father, the same which were quoted by St. Irenaeus,
Origen, Eusebius, St. Athanasius, St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Gildas,
&c., are published genuine by Usher, Vossius, Cotelier, &c., and in
English by archbishop Wake, in 1710.

St. Ignatius, not being allowed time to write to the other churches of
Asia, commissioned St. Polycarp to do it for him. From Troas they sailed
to Neapolis in Macedonia, and went thence to Philippi, from which place
they crossed Macedonia and Epirus on foot; but took shipping again at
Epidamnum in Dalmatia, and sailing by Rhegium and Puteoli, were carried
by a strong gale into the Roman port, the great station of the navy near
Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, sixteen miles from Rome. He would
gladly have landed at Puteoli, to have traced St. Paul's steps, by going
on foot from that place to Rome, but the wind rendered it impracticable.
On landing, the authors of these acts, who were his companions, say they
were seized with great grief, seeing they were soon to be separated from
their dear master; but he rejoiced to find himself so near the end of
his race. The soldiers hastened him on, because the public shows were
drawing to an end. The faithful of Rome came out to meet him, rejoicing
at the sight of him, but grieving that they were so soon to lose him by
a barbarous death. They earnestly wished that he might be released at
the request of the people. The martyr knew in spirit their thoughts, and
said much more to them than he had done in his letter on the subject of
true charity, conjuring them not to obstruct his going to the Lord. Then
kneeling with all the brethren, he prayed to the Son of God for the
Church, for the ceasing of the persecution, and for perpetual charity
and unanimity among the faithful. He arrived at Rome the 20th of
December, the last day of the public entertainments, and was presented
to the prefect of the city, to whom the emperor's letter was delivered
at the same time. He was then hurried by the soldiers into the
amphitheatre. The saint hearing the lions roar, cried out: "I am the
wheat of the Lord; I must be ground by the teeth of these beasts to be
made the pure bread of Christ." Two fierce lions being let out upon him,
they instantly devoured him, leaving nothing of his body but the larger
bones: thus his prayer was heard. "After having been present at this
sorrowful spectacle," say our authors, "which made us shed many tears,
we spent the following night in our house in watching and prayer,
begging of God to afford us some comfort by certifying us of his glory."
They relate, that their prayer was heard, and that several of them in
their slumber saw him in great bliss. They are exact in setting down the
day of his death, that they might assemble yearly thereon to honor his
martyrdom.[10] They add, that his bones were taken up and carried to
Antioch, and there laid in a chest as an inestimable treasure. St.
Chrysostom says his relics were carried in triumph on the shoulders of
all the cities from Rome to Antioch. They were first laid in the
cemetery without the Daphnitic gate, but in the reign of Theodosius the
younger were translated thence with great pomp to a church in the city,
which had been a temple of Fortune, but from this time bore his name, as
Evagrius {332} relates.[11] St. Chrysostom exhorts all people to visit
them, assuring them they would receive thereby many advantages,
spiritual and corporal, which he proves at length.[12] They are now at
Rome, in the church of St. Clement, pope, whither they were brought
about the time when Antioch fell into the hands of the Saracens in the
reign of Heraclius, in 637.[13] The regular canons at Arouaise near
Bapaume in Artois, the Benedictin monks at Liesse in Haynault, and some
other churches, have obtained each some bone of this glorious
martyr.[14] The Greeks keep his feast a holyday on the day of his death,
the 20th of December. His martyrdom happened in 107.

* * * * *

The perfect spirit of humility, meekness, patience, charity, and all
other Christian virtues, which the seven epistles of St. Ignatius
breathe in every part, cannot fail deeply to affect all who attentively
read them. Critics confess that they find in them a sublimity, an energy
and beauty of thought and expression, which they cannot sufficiently
admire. But the Christian is far more astonished at the saint's perfect
disengagement of heart from the world, the ardor of his love for God,
and the earnestness of his desire of martyrdom. Every period in them is
full of profound sense, which must be attentively meditated on before we
can discover the divine sentiments of all virtues which are here
expressed. Nor can we consider them without being inspired by some
degree of the same, and being covered with confusion to find ourselves
fall so far short of the humility and fervor of the primitive saints.
Let us listen to the instructions which this true disciple of Christ
gives in his letter to the Philadelphians, an abstract of his other six
epistles being given above. He begins it by a strenuous recommendation
of union with their bishop, priests, and deacons; and gives to their
bishop (whom he does not name) great praises, especially for his
humility and meekness, insomuch that he says his silence was more
powerful than the vain discourses of others, and that conversing with an
unchangeable serenity of mind, and in the sweetness of the living God,
he was utterly a stranger to anger. He charges them to refrain from the
pernicious weeds of heresy and schism, which are not planted by the
Father, nor kept by Christ. "Whoever belong to God and Jesus Christ,
these are with the bishop. If any one follows him who maketh a schism,
he obtains not the inheritance of the kingdom of God. He who walks in
the simplicity of obedience is not enslaved to his passion. Use one
eucharist: for the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ is one, and the cup is
one in the unity of his blood. There is one altar, as there is one
bishop, with the college of the priesthood and the deacons, my
fellow-servants, that you may do all things according to God. My
brethren, my heart is exceedingly dilated in the tender love which I
bear you, and exulting beyond bounds, I render you secure and cautious;
not I indeed, but Jesus Christ, in whom being bound I fear the more for
myself, being yet imperfect. But your prayer with God will make me
perfect, that I may obtain the portion which his mercy assigns me."
Having cautioned them against adopting Jewish ceremonies, and against
divisions and schisms, he mentions one that had lately happened among
them, and speaks of a revelation which he had received of it as follows:
"When I was among you, I cried out with a loud voice, with the voice of
God, saying: Hearken to your bishop, and the priesthood, and the
deacons. Some suspected that I said this from a foresight of the
division which some afterwards {333} made. But He for whom I am in
chains is my witness, that I knew it not from man, but the Spirit
declared it, saying: Do ye nothing without your bishop. Keep your body
holy as the temple of God. Be lovers of unity; shun all divisions. Be ye
imitators of Jesus Christ, as he is of the Father. I therefore did what
lay in me, as one framed to maintain union. Where disagreement or anger
is found, there God never dwells. But God forgives all penitents." He
charges them to send some person of honor from their church to
congratulate with his church in Syria upon peace being restored to it,
and calls him blessed who should be honored with this commission.

Footnotes:
1. The accent placed on the penultima of [Greek: Theophoros], as the
word is written in the saint's acts, denotes it of an active
signification, _one that carrieth God_; but of the passive, _carried
of God_, if placed on the antepenultima.
2. St. Gregory tells us, (l. 4, ep. 37,) that he was a disciple of St.
Peter. The apostolic constitutions add, also of St. Paul, (l. 7, c.
46.) We are assured by St. Chrysostom (Hom. in St. Ignat.) and
Theodoret, (Dial. 1, p. 33,) that he was made bishop by the
direction of the apostles, and by the imposition of their hands. St.
Chrysostom says, that St. Peter appointed him bishop to govern the
see of Antioch, when he quitted it himself; which seems also to be
affirmed by Origen, (in Luc. Hom. 6,) St. Athanasius, (de Syn. p.
922,) F{}dus, &c. Baronius thinks he was left by St. Peter, bishop
of the Jewish converts, and became bishop also of the Gentiles in
68: for Eusebius (Hist. l. 3, c. 22, 36.) says, that St. Evodius
succeeded St. Peter at Antioch; he adds in his chronicle, in the
year 43, that he died in 68, and was succeeded by St. Ignatius. Some
think there is a mistake in the chronicle of Eusebius, as to the
year of the death of Evodius, and that this happened before the
martyrdom of St. Peter, who appointed St. Ignatius his successor.
See Cotelier, not. p. 299. Tillem. not. t. 2. p. 619. The Greek
Menaea mentions Evodius on the 7th of September.
3. Hom. in St. Ignat. t. 2, p. 592. See also Theodoret. Dial. 1, p. 33.
4. 2 Cor. v. 16.
5. In his letter to the Magnesians, after saluting them, he says, he
rejoices exceedingly in their charity and faith, and adds: "Having
the honor to bear a name of divine dignity, on account to the chains
which I carry, I sing the glow of the churches, and wish them the
union of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ our perpetual life, of
faith, and of charity, than which nothing is more excellent; and
what is chiefest, of Jesus and the Father, in whom, bearing with
patience the whole power of the prince of this world, and escaping
him, we shall possess God." The saint much commends their bishop
Damas, and exhorts them to yield him perfect obedience,
notwithstanding his youth. Setting death before their eyes as near
at hand to every one, he puts them in mind that we must bear the
mark of Jesus Christ, (which is charity,) not that of the world. "If
we are not ready to die, in imitation of his sufferings, his life is
not in us," says he. "I recommend to you that you do all things in
the concord of God, the bishop presiding for God, the priests in the
place of the college of the apostles, and my dearest deacons, to
whom is the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before
all ages, and has appeared in the end. Therefore, following all the
same conduct, respect one another, and let no one consider his
neighbor according to the flesh, but ever love each other in Jesus
Christ. As the Lord did nothing without the Father, so neither do
you say thing without the priests. Meeting together, have one
prayer, one mind, one hope in charity, in holy joy. All of you meet
as in one church of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ,
who proceeds from one Father, exists in one, and returns to him in
Unity." He cautions them against admitting the Jewish ceremonies,
and against the errors of the Docetes. Then adds: "I shall enjoy you
in all things if I am worthy. For though I am in chains, I am not to
be compared to any one of you who enjoy your liberty. I know there
is in you no pride; for you have Jesus Christ within you. And when I
commend you, I know that you are more confounded, as it is written:
_The just man is his own accuser_." Prov. xviii. 18. He again
tenderly exhorts them to concord, and to obedience to their bishop,
and commends himself, that he may attain to God and his church, of
which he is not worthy to be called one, to their prayers, adding:
"I stand much in need of your united prayer and charity in God, that
the church in Syria may deserve to be watered by your church."

The epistle to the Trallians he begins thus: "I know that your
sentiments are pure, your hearts inseperable in patience and
meekness, which is not passing, but as it were natural; as I learn
from your bishop Polybius who congratulated with me in my chains in
Christ Jesus, in such manner that in him I beheld your whole
multitude. Receiving through him your good-will in God, I gloried,
finding you to be, as I knew, imitators of God. As you are subject
to the bishop as to Christ, you seem not to live according to men,
but according to Jesus Christ." He bids them respect the deacons
(whom be calls the ministers of the mysteries of Jesus Christ) as
the precept of Christ; the priests as the senate of God, and the
bishop as representing God. "Without these the very name of a church
is not given," says he--"I know many things in God, but I measure
myself, lest by glorying I perish. Now I have reason more to fear:
nor must I listen to those who speak kindly to me; for they who
speak to commend me, scourge me. I desire indeed to suffer: but I
know not whether I am worthy. Though I am in chains, and understand
heavenly things, the ranks of angels and principalities, things
visible and invisible; am I on this account a disciple? for many
things are wanting to us that we be not separated from God. I
conjure you, not I, but the charity of Jesus Christ, to use
Christian food, and to refrain from foreign weed, which is heresy.
Heretics join Jesus Christ with what is defiled, giving a deadly
poison in a mixture of wine and honey which they who take, drink
with pleasure their own death without knowing it. Refrain from such,
which you will do if you remain united to God, Jesus Christ, and the
bishop, and the precepts of the apostles. He who is within the altar
is clean, but he who is without it, that is, without the bishop,
priests, and deacons, is not clean." He adds his usual exhortations
to union, and begs their prayers for himself and his church, of
which he is not worthy to be called one, being the last of them, and
yet fighting is danger. "May my spirit sanctify you, not only now,
but also when I shall enjoy God."
6. 1 Cor. iv. 4.
7. Not that he would really incite the beasts to dispatch him, without
a special inspiration, because that would have been self-murder; but
this expresses the courage and desire of his soul.
8. [Greek: Ho hemos eros estanrotai.]
9. See an account of these two last in the life of St. Polycarp. Orsi
draws a proof in favor of the supremacy of the see of Rome, from the
title which St. Ignatius gives it at the head of his epistle. In
directing his other letters, and saluting other churches, he only
writes: "To the blessed church which is at Ephesus:" [Greek: Te ese
en Epheso] "at Magnesia near the Maeander: at Tralles: at
Philadelphia: at Smyrna:" but in that to the Romans he changes his
style, and addresses his letter: "To the beloved church which is
enlightened, (by the will of Him who ordaineth all things which are
according to the charity of Jesus Christ our God,) which presides in
the country of the Romans, [Greek: etis prokathetai en topo chores
Romaion], worthy of God, most adorned, justly happy, most commended,
fitly regulated and governed, most chaste, and presiding in charity,
&c."
10. According to the common opinion, St. Ignatius was crowned with
martyrdom in the year 107. The Greek copies of a homily of the sixth
age, On the False Prophets, among the works of St. Chrysostom, say
on the 20th; but Bede, in his Martyrology, on the 17th of December.
Antoni Pagi, convinced by the letter of Dr. Loyde, bishop of St.
Asaph's, places his martyrdom about the end of the year 116: for
John Malalas of Antioch tells us the great earthquake, in which Dion
Cassias mentions that Trajan narrowly escaped at Antioch, happened
in that journey of Trajan in which he condemned St. Ignatius. Now
Trajan marching to the Parthian war, arrived at Antioch on the 8th
of January, in 113, the sixteenth year of his reign: and in his
return from the East, above two years later, passed again through
Antioch in 116, when this earthquake happened. St. Ignatius suffered
at Rome towards the end of that year. Le Quien prefers this date,
because it best agrees with the chronology of his successors to
Theophilus. Orien. Christ. t. 2, p. 700.
11. Evagr. Hist. Eccl. l. 1, c. 16, Ed. Vales.
12. Or. in S. Ignat. t. 2, p. 600. Ed. Nov.
13. See Baron. Annal. ad an. 637, and Not. ad Martyr. Rom. ad 17 Dec.
14. See Henschenius, Feb. t. 1, p. 35.