St Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius belongs to the generation immediately after the apostles, and his life is unusually vivid because his own letters survive. As bishop of Antioch he was arrested in old age, placed under military guard, and taken from Syria toward Rome to die. That long road to martyrdom gives the life its distinctive force. At Smyrna and Troas he wrote seven letters, and in them we meet not a marble hero but a living pastor: affectionate, urgent, doctrinally clear, and utterly fixed on Christ. He pleads for unity around the bishop, warns against false teaching, speaks with striking realism about the Eucharist and the Incarnation, and begs the Christians at Rome not to interfere with the martyrdom he believes God has appointed for him.

His famous desire to be "ground by the teeth of beasts" can sound severe until the rest of the letters is heard beside it. The same man who longs to finish his course also worries about churches, friendships, and the peace of communities he may never see again. By the time he reaches Rome, the witness is already complete. The martyrdom crowns a life that had already taught the Church how an early bishop could suffer, teach, and love at once.