Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius Theophorus
- Lived
- c. 35–c. 108
- Era
- The fathers
- Where
- Antioch, Syria
- Tradition
- The apostolic communities
Seven letters written on the road to his execution
Bishop of Antioch, arrested and taken under guard across Asia Minor to Rome to die in the arena. He wrote seven letters on the journey, to churches that met him along the way and to Polycarp, and they are among the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament.
Why it matters
The letters show a church already organised under a single bishop with presbyters and deacons, roughly seventy years after the crucifixion — which is the earliest hard evidence for that structure and is argued over accordingly. He is the first writer to use the phrase "catholic church". He asked the Roman Christians not to intervene to save him.
In the record
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64–313 AD Persecution
Imperial persecutions
Taken to Rome to die in the arena
All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.