St. Ignatius was born in Syria during the last years of the Savior’s life on earth. In his hagiography it states that he was the youth whom the Lord took into his arms and said, “Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18: 3). He was a disciple of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. St. Ignatius’ epistle to the community at Smyrna shows that he was especially close to the Holy Apostle Peter and accompanied him on several of his apostolic journeys. Shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 72 AD, Evodus, one of Christ’s disciples, reposed; Ignatius became his successor on the episcopal throne of Antioch.
St. Ignatius directed the Church of Antioch over the course of 40 years (67-107 AD). He was made worthy of a special vision in which he witnessed divine services being performed in Heaven, and heard Angelic chant. Using the Angelic Realm as his model, he introduced into divine services the practice of antiphonal chant, in which two choirs alternately chant, as it were echoing one another. This type of chant quickly spread from Syria throughout the early Church.
During his campaign against the Armenians in the year 107, the Emperor Trajan was passing through Antioch. It was reported to him that Holy Hierarch Ignatius confessed Christ, taught people to spurn wealth, to maintain virginity, and to not offer sacrifices to the Roman gods. The Emperor summoned the Holy Hierarch and demanded that he desist from preaching Christ. The Elder refused, and was sent in chains to Rome, where he was sent to be torn apart by wild beasts in the Colosseum for the amusement of the crowd. When his heart was laid bare, one of the soldiers cut it in two, and on each side was found inscribed in gold, “Jesus Christ.”
On the way to Rome, Ignatius composed seven epistles, which are still extant. In his epistles, St. Ignatius asks Christians not to try to save him from death. “I implore you, do not show me love at an inopportune time. Leave me to become food for the beasts, so that through them I might attain unto God. I am God’s wheat. Let me be ground in the teeth of the beasts, that I might become Christ’s pure Bread.” Upon hearing of the Holy Hierarch’s courage, Trajan put an end to his persecution of Christians. St. Ignatius’ relics were transferred to Antioch, but later returned to Rome and placed in the Church of Holy Hieromartyr Clement, pope of Rome.
In his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Ignatius wrote, “Keep faith and love, and in your actions show yourselves to be Christians. Faith and love are the beginning and the end of life. Faith is the beginning, and love the end, and together they are the work of God. Everything else to do with the virtues flows out of these two. No one who is confessing the Faith is sinning, and no one who has acquired love hates.”