Around the year 100, the Emperor Trajan led a series of successful military conquests against the Scythian and the Dacian tribes. To celebrate his victories, Trajan mandated sacrifices be made throughout the empire to the Roman gods. Christians of the empire would be forced to make a choice: engage in this sinful idolatrous worship of false gods or face the consequences.
Trajan already had little tolerance for Christians. In his letter to Pliny, he noted that Christians for their “creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy, surely deserved to be punished”. And for our refusal to participate in these pagan sacrifices, Trajan launched what was essentially the third major state sponsored persecution of the Church.
Wishing to oversee these sacrifices himself, the emperor came to the great city of Antioch, in what is now modern day Turkey. Antioch since the time of Julius Caesar had been a tremendously important city in the Empire—Antioch was even known as the “Rome of the East” boasting a population of a million people by the time of Trajan. Antioch even had a Roman hippodrome modeled after the Circus Maximus in Rome, and could seat 80,000 spectators.
There was also a sizeable Christian population in Antioch, led by a bishop who was purportedly a disciple of the apostle John, who may have even met Jesus as a young boy. Antioch’s bishop had been given the name Ignatius by his parents, but at baptism had taken the name Theophorus, which meant God-Bearer. Ignatius, had already been bishop for about 40 years, and was beloved by the Christians of Antioch—where in fact, the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called Christian. Ignatius was well educated, was renowned for his preaching and teaching.
When Trajan himself came to Antioch, he sent for the bishop, for if he could break the bishop, the people would soon follow. But, when ordered to renounce his Christian faith and offer sacrifice to the Roman gods, Ignatius confessed his steadfast faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ. “Do you mean Him who was crucified?” asked the emperor, scornfully. Ignatius answered, “The very same, Who by His death overcame sin, and enabled those who bear Him in their hearts to trample under foot all the power of the devils.”
Trajan then had the saintly and courageous bishop arrested and chained and sentenced to death in the Flavian Amphitheater in Rome as part of this 123 day-long festival in honor of the Roman gods.
The historian Eusebius writes that during his journey to Rome, “Ignatius fortified the parishes in the various cities where he stopped by homilies and exhortations, and warned them above all to be especially on their guard against the heresies that were then beginning to prevail, and exhorted them to hold fast to the tradition of the Apostles".
We know too that as Ignatius neared Rome, he wrote a number of letters to these Christian Communities, and to this day, we cherish his letters to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans and so on. For his letters give us a marvelous glimpse into the life of the early Church at the turn of the first Christian century.
Catholic Philosopher and Apologist Dr. Peter Kreeft tells the story of his conversion to Catholicism which occurred when he was a young student at Calvin College. Wishing to prove to himself that the early Church more closely resembled the Calvinist tradition, he began to read the early Church fathers, like the letters of Ignatius. And he says, that in his reading, he came to discover, that no, the Early Church wasn’t Calivinist, in fact, it was Catholic! The worship, the doctrines, the structure, the sacraments, described by Ignatius and the Early Church Fathers: all of them Catholic.
The letters of Ignatius in particular show us the hierarchical structure of the Church with bishops, priests, and deacons, and the primacy of the bishop of Rome. Writing to the Ephesians he tells the priests to be attuned to the bishop as strings to a harp, and for the people to be in harmony with the bishop like singers in a choir. In fact, if you take a look at the façade of our beautiful church, you will see a relief with members of the Christian faithful surrounding St. Ignatius as if he were a choral director.
About a decade ago already now, Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his Wednesday audiences to teaching and reflecting upon the lives of the early Church Fathers. You can get an excellent education on the Church fathers reading the Pope’s reflections. Regarding our particular parish patron, Ignatius, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “No Church Father has expressed the longing for union with Christ and for life in him with the intensity of Ignatius.”
Union with Christ, was the aim, the goal of the life of St. Ignatius, as it becomes for all the saints. This is why Ignatius is so adamant that clergy and lay faithful must be united to their bishop. This is why he writes that Christians must gather week after week for the Eucharist—for it is at the eucharist that union with Christ is most profoundly experienced.
And this is why Ignatius includes in his letters his desire for martyrdom. “I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.”
For Ignatius, union with God meant imitating Our Lord’s sacrificial self-offering to the Father on the cross. And so Ignatius urges the Christians not to hinder this opportunity for him to die a martyr’s death in imitation of Our Lord.
Now think about this: the Christians throughout the Empire, especially in Rome, knew how gruesome martyrdom could be. In the first major persecution under Nero, Christians were covered in tar and set on fire. They knew just how ruthless the Roman government could be. And for this saintly bishop, this successor of the Apostles, to write them about his desire for martyrdom, his plea not to be spared martyrdom, would have bolstered their belief that we do not live simply for this world. But the time we have been given on this earth is to prepare for a new birth into heavenly glory.
“No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way,” writes Ignatius. “I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth.” Ignatius turned away from anything that could keep him from union with God. For the purpose of our religion is to bring about our union with God—union with the Most Holy Trinity, unity which can be seen in our visible communion with the Bishops the successors of the Apostles, unity around the Eucharistic altar, unity in belief and right practice, unity in our care for the poor and our love for our fellow Christians, unity in our willingness to live and die for Christ.
May we follow our holy patron’s example and know always the benefit of his heavenly intercession—that we may live in union with Christ in this life, that we may experience union with him in the life to come, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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