Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr

Biography

That is why he must have been called as Bishop to the see of Antioch, over which Saint Peter himself had presided. If we know little about the life of this great martyr of Jesus Christ until his pilgrimage from Antioch to Rome, we do know seven beautiful letters that more than make up for the lack of information about his youth and youth until he became the Bishop of Antioch, a position he held for forty years. Saint Ignatius was not satisfied with the spoken word, but cemented it with letters that he dictated very quickly. He exhorted the communities to persevere in the union of divine worship and Catholic Doctrine. Pledges of this union are the Eucharist and the bond with the Bishop of Rome. For this reason, Saint Ignatius demanded obedience to the Roman Church, since this is the one appointed to preside over "the union of love." Ignatius longed for the death of the martyrs. Because he was a Christian and defender of Christians, he was condemned to be devoured by wild beasts in the capital of the empire, so that he could serve as a lesson to all other Christians. He was seventy years old when he was sentenced to be thrown to the beasts in the Flavian amphitheater in Rome. He suffered a lot from the arbitrariness of the guards, since in his letters he compares the soldiers to "ten leopards that the more you try to appease them, the more ferocious they become." The Acts of his Martyrdom say that that blessed Antioch that had been ruled by Peter and Paul and sanctified with the preaching of Barnabas, was now governed wisely and holyly by its Bishop Ignatius. "At the time of his arrest," the Acts say, "he fastened his chains and, having prayed for the Church and entrusted it to the Lord, like a ram, leader of a beautiful flock, he was carried away by the barbaric fury of the soldiers, to be taken to Rome, to be food for the bloodthirsty beasts," and shortly before dying, he said: "I want to be wheat in the teeth of the wild beasts to become the bread of Jesus Christ. Do not prevent me if is that you love me." He died for Christ in the Roman Coliseum in the year 107.