St Ignatius of Antioch: Life, Letters, Martyrdom, Feast

St Ignatius of Antioch was the bishop of Antioch in Syria, the second successor of St Peter in that see, who was condemned under the emperor Trajan and taken in chains to Rome to be thrown to the wild beasts. On the road he wrote seven letters to the churches, which are among the most precious writings of the Church after the New Testament: in them we find the Eucharist confessed as "the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ" and, for the first time in any surviving writing, the words "the Catholic Church." His feast in the traditional Roman calendar falls on 1 February; here is his life, his letters, his martyrdom as "the wheat of God," and the collect of his Mass.

Who was St Ignatius of Antioch?

Ignatius was a Syrian, born around the middle of the first century. In the greeting of each of his letters he calls himself "Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus," the God-bearer. He governed the Church of Antioch, the city where, as St Luke tells us, "the disciples were first named Christians" (Acts xi. 26), and where St Peter had first sat as bishop.

The Roman Breviary, in the lesson read on his feast, says that he was "chosen to be the second successor of Peter as bishop of Antioch"; St Jerome, in the older form of the same lesson, calls him "the third Bishop of Antioch after the Apostle Peter," counting Peter himself, with Evodius between them. St John Chrysostom and Theodoret record the tradition that he received the episcopate from the Apostles themselves, and it is believed with great probability that, with his friend St Polycarp, he had heard the Apostle St John. He belongs, then, to the generation that had known the Apostles, which is why his letters are so precious a witness to what the Church believed from the beginning.

The arrest and the road to Rome

When Trajan stirred up his persecution, Ignatius was accused of being a Christian and "condemned to be devoured by wild beasts, and sent to Rome in chains," in the words of St Jerome read in the Breviary. The journey from Syria to Rome was long, and it became his last mission. "As he was being brought from Syria in chains," the Breviary continues, "he kept teaching all the cities of Asia which he went through, exhorting them as a messenger of the Gospel and instructing the more distant ones by his letters."

At Smyrna he was received by its bishop, St Polycarp, the disciple of St John. There he wrote to the Ephesians, the Magnesians, the Trallians and the Romans; after leaving Smyrna he wrote to the Philadelphians, to the Smyrnaeans, and a personal letter to Polycarp, to whose care he commended his own Church of Antioch. His guards treated him harshly. To the Romans he wrote, as St Jerome summarises it: "I am on my way from Syria to Rome, and am already fighting with beasts on sea and on land all the way. I may say I am chained day and night to ten leopards, for indeed the soldiers, who have charge of me, are no better."

The letters of St Ignatius of Antioch

The seven letters are:

• to the Ephesians;
• to the Magnesians;
• to the Trallians;
• to the Romans;
• to the Philadelphians;
• to the Smyrnaeans;
• to St Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna.

These seven are the ones named by Eusebius and by St Jerome. Later centuries added other letters under his name and expanded the genuine ones; the seven of the short collection are the authentic Ignatius. Three themes run through them all: unity with the bishop, the reality of the Incarnation and of the Eucharist against the heretics who said Christ only seemed to have a body, and his burning desire for martyrdom.

St Ignatius of Antioch on the Eucharist

Against the Docetists, who denied that Christ had truly taken flesh, Ignatius points to their absence from the altar: "They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes" (Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, 7).

To the Philadelphians he ties the one Eucharist to the one altar and the one bishop: "Take heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants" (Philadelphians, 4). And to the Ephesians he calls the Eucharistic bread "the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but [which causes] that we should live for ever in Jesus Christ" (Ephesians, 20).

A bishop writing at the very beginning of the second century, who had known the disciples of the Apostles, thus confesses the Holy Eucharist as the true flesh of Christ, in the plain sense of Our Lord's own words, This is My Body.

"Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church"

In the same letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ignatius writes the sentence in which the expression "the Catholic Church" appears for the first time in any surviving Christian writing: "See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church" (Smyrnaeans, 8).

Bishop, priests and deacons; the Eucharist offered under the bishop's authority; one Church called Catholic: the whole hierarchical order of the Church is already there, a few decades after the death of the last Apostle. Our pages on the four marks of the Church and on what the Catholic Church is follow this teaching through the tradition. Ignatius also greets the Church of Rome as the Church "which also presides in the place of the region of the Romans," a witness to the place held from the first by the see of St Peter.

How did St Ignatius of Antioch die? The wheat of God

The letter to the Romans is a plea that the Christians of Rome should not try to save him: "I write to the Churches, and impress on them all, that I shall willingly die for God, unless you hinder me. I beseech of you not to show an unseasonable good-will towards me. Allow me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ" (Romans, 4).

And again: "Now I begin to be a disciple. And let no one, of things visible or invisible, envy me that I should attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings, breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of members; let shatterings of the whole body; and let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ" (Romans, 5).

His prayer was heard. The Breviary relates that "when he had arrived in Rome, he heard the lions roaring and, burning with desire for martyrdom, he burst out, 'I am the wheat of Christ; let me be ground by the teeth of the beasts so that I may be found pure bread.' He suffered in the eleventh year of Trajan's reign." He was put to death in the Flavian amphitheatre, the Colosseum, in the early years of the second century.

The Gospel of his Mass is the word of Our Lord that his death fulfilled: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die it bringeth forth much fruit" (John xii. 24-25). And the Introit puts on his lips the words of St Paul: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians vi. 14).

The relics of St Ignatius

St Jerome writes that "what was left of his body lieth at Antioch, in the graveyard outside the gate which leadeth toward Daphne." His remains were later placed in a church at Antioch dedicated in his honour, and in the seventh century they were translated to Rome, to the basilica of St Clement, where they rest.

St Ignatius of Antioch feast day

In the traditional Roman calendar, the feast of St Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr, falls on 1 February, the day before Candlemas, and in the 1962 calendar it is a feast of the third class. His Mass is Mihi autem absit gloriari, with the Epistle of St Paul to the Romans, "Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Romans viii. 35-39), and the Gospel of the grain of wheat. His name is also said every day in the Canon of the Mass, in the prayer Nobis quoque peccatoribus, among the martyrs with whom we ask to be given "some part and fellowship": cum Joanne, Stephano, Matthia, Barnaba, Ignatio, Alexandro…

The calendar reform of 1969 moved his feast to 17 October; those who keep the Missal and Breviary of 1962 honour him on 1 February, as the Roman Church long did. Our traditional Catholic calendar gives the date each year.

St Ignatius of Antioch prayer: the collect of his feast

The collect of his Mass in the Missal of 1962, taken from the Common of a Martyr Bishop:

Collect of the feast, 1 February

Infirmitátem nostram réspice, omnípotens Deus: et, quia pondus própriæ actiónis gravat, beáti Ignátii Mártyris tui atque Pontíficis intercéssio gloriósa nos prótegat. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.

Look upon our weakness, almighty God: and since the burden of our own deeds weighs us down, may the glorious intercession of blessed Ignatius, Thy Martyr and Bishop, protect us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

There is no better private prayer to St Ignatius than his own words, read slowly before Holy Communion: "I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ."

What is St Ignatius of Antioch the patron saint of?

The Church has given him no formal patronage, and we shall not invent one. His letters make him the natural intercessor of bishops and of the unity of the Church, of those who suffer for the faith, and of all who wish to receive the Eucharist worthily. Many churches, Latin, Maronite and Eastern, are dedicated to him, as to one of the great martyrs honoured by the whole Church from the beginning. Our guide to the Catholic saints sets St Ignatius of Antioch in the company of the other saints of the traditional calendar, month by month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was St Ignatius of Antioch?

The bishop of Antioch in Syria, second successor of St Peter in that see, who was condemned under Trajan, taken in chains to Rome, and thrown to the wild beasts in the early second century. On the road he wrote seven letters to the churches, which are among the most important witnesses to the faith of the first Christians.

How did St Ignatius of Antioch die?

He was devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre at Rome, in the eleventh year of Trajan's reign, as St Jerome records. Hearing the lions roar, he cried: "I am the wheat of Christ; let me be ground by the teeth of the beasts so that I may be found pure bread."

Why was St Ignatius of Antioch martyred?

Because he was a Christian and the bishop of Christians. Under Trajan's persecution he was accused of the faith, refused to deny it, and was condemned to the beasts as a public example, which is why he was sent to Rome rather than executed at Antioch.

What did St Ignatius of Antioch say about the Eucharist?

That it is "the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again" (Smyrnaeans, 7); that there is "one Eucharist," one flesh of Christ and one cup, as there is one altar and one bishop (Philadelphians, 4); and that the Eucharistic bread is "the medicine of immortality" (Ephesians, 20).

Is St Ignatius of Antioch Catholic?

Yes. He was a bishop of the one Church in full communion with Rome, which he greeted as the Church that "presides" in the region of the Romans, and he is the first known writer to use the words "the Catholic Church." He is a saint of the Roman calendar, named every day in the Canon of the Mass, and also honoured by the Eastern Churches.

Is St Ignatius of Antioch a Doctor of the Church?

No. He has never been declared a Doctor of the Church. He is counted among the Apostolic Fathers, the writers who had known the Apostles or their immediate disciples, and he is honoured liturgically as a bishop and martyr.

Who was St Ignatius of Antioch a disciple of?

It is believed with great probability that, like his friend St Polycarp, he heard the Apostle St John, and an ancient tradition holds that he received the episcopate from the Apostles. He succeeded Evodius, the first bishop of Antioch after St Peter.

When is the feast day of St Ignatius of Antioch?

On 1 February in the traditional Roman calendar, a feast of the third class in 1962. The calendar of 1969 moved it to 17 October.

The Iter Fidei app carries the Roman Missal and the Breviary of 1962, with the Mass and Office of St Ignatius on 1 February and the traditional calendar of the saints. Join early access here.

Sources. Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version: Acts xi. 26; John xii. 24-25; Galatians vi. 14; Romans viii. 35-39. St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistles to the Ephesians (20), to the Romans (greeting, 4, 5), to the Philadelphians (4) and to the Smyrnaeans (7, 8). Roman Breviary, 1 February, lessons from St Jerome, On Illustrious Men, ch. 16. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book iii. Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 1 February, Common of a Martyr Bishop, and Canon of the Mass.