Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius was bishop of Antioch in Syria, one of the first great centers of Christianity, where the disciples were first called Christians. Tradition names him as the third bishop of the city after Saint Peter and Evodius, and he may have known the apostles.

During the reign of the Emperor Trajan he was arrested and taken under guard to Rome to be thrown to wild beasts. On the journey he wrote seven letters, to the Christians of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia and Smyrna, and to Saint Polycarp. In them he urges unity around the bishop, defends the true humanity and divinity of Christ, calls the Eucharist the medicine of immortality and is the first known writer to speak of the "Catholic Church." He begged the Romans not to prevent his martyrdom: "I am the wheat of God, ground by the teeth of wild beasts." He was martyred in Rome around the year 107.

His letters are read in the Liturgy of the Hours and remain among the most precious witnesses of the early Church. His name is included in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

In Antioch and throughout the Eastern Churches he is honored as Theophoros, "the God-bearer."