Commontide
Proper 23
Liturgical Color: Red
The 18th Sunday after Trinity
O God, our refuge and strength, true source of all godliness: Graciously hear the devout prayers of your Church, and grant that those things which we ask faithfully, we may obtain effectually; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Bishop and Martyr
Ecumenical Commemoration
Ignatius was the second or third bishop of Antioch in Roman Syria, the city where the disciples were first called Christians. Arrested in the persecution under the emperor Trajan and marched under guard toward Rome to be thrown to the beasts, he wrote seven letters along the way, to five churches of Asia Minor, to the church at Rome, and to his fellow bishop Polycarp of Smyrna. Those letters, written in the early second century, are among the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament, and they gave the church its first clear language for unity around the bishop and for the total, longing surrender of martyrdom. His feast is October 17.
Almost nothing is known of Ignatius before his arrest. Later tradition claims he was a disciple of the Apostle John, but this cannot be verified. As bishop of Antioch, Ignatius inherited a church of considerable prominence — Antioch was the third-largest city of the Roman Empire and the cradle of gentile Christianity, the place where followers of Jesus were first called 'Christians' (Acts 11:26).
During the persecution under Trajan (apparently between 107 and 115 AD), Ignatius was arrested, condemned to death by being eaten by wild beasts in Rome's amphitheater, and sent under military guard on the journey westward. The voyage took him through Asia Minor, and at various points — Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Philadelphia, Smyrna — delegations from local churches came to meet him. It was during these stops that he wrote his seven letters: individual epistles to the churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Philadelphia, and Rome, a personal letter to Polycarp the bishop of Smyrna, and a letter to the church at Smyrna itself.
The letters reveal a bishop consumed by two passions: the unity of the church centered on the bishop, and an intense, mystical longing for martyrdom. He begs each church to maintain unity under its bishop and to be on guard against schism and heresy, particularly Docetism (the denial that Christ truly became human). His famous declaration — 'where the bishop is, there is the catholic church' — provided the theological foundation for episcopal ecclesiology that would shape Christian polity for centuries.
His letter to the Romans is extraordinary. Fearing the Roman Christians might intervene to save him, Ignatius begs them not to: 'Let me be food for the wild beasts, through whom I can attain to God.... I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of Christ.' The intensity of the letter — simultaneously disturbing and magnificent — has generated theological and psychological debate for nineteen centuries.
Ignatius was martyred in Rome's amphitheater, probably around 115 AD. The precise circumstances are recorded only in later acts of uncertain reliability.
Traditionally, Ignatius's final journey to Rome is depicted with vivid detail in the later Acts of Ignatius, which describe his trial before Trajan, his conversations with the emperor, his travel through cities, and his dramatic martyrdom in the amphitheater with wild animals. These later accounts elaborate on and dramatize what Ignatius's own letters suggest, adding legendary material.