The immediate decades following the Neronian persecution (64–67 AD)
were generally good years for the Church, with freedom from persecution
allowing for extensive growth. During these decades, St. Ignatius became a
disciple of the Apostle John and good friends with St. Polycarp of Smyrna.
The Church was growing and spreading throughout the Roman world. It
was now more distinctly gentile, and clearly a federation of communities
united in belief, mode of government and worship.
However, around the year 115 AD the Imperial political mood again turned
against Christianity and another persecution was launched, this time by the
Emperor Trajan. An earthquake struck the city of Antioch while Trajan was
sojourning there after his victorious conquest of Armenia and northern
Mesopotamia. Thousands were killed, including one of the Consuls for that
year. The Emperor himself was injured. Christians were blamed for the
disaster and many were formally denounced and arrested. One of the first
victims of the scapegoating was the city’s bishop, St. Ignatius.
St. Ignatius, by now an elderly man, was “at least thirty years a bishop,
probably trained by the Apostle John, and was apparently at this time the
most venerated living member of the whole Church.”³ He was chained by
the Romans and ordered by Trajan to be taken to Rome. There is no other
case recorded in Church history of a Christian being so transported across
the Empire for martyrdom. He was marched through Asia Minor to be
eaten alive by lions in the Colosseum: “I am His wheat, ground fine by the
lion’s teeth to be made purest bread for Christ” (Epistle to the Romans 4).
Along the way, he was greeted by delegations from the various churches
that flocked to venerate the renowned spiritual father.
It was during his dramatic journey to Rome that St. Ignatius composed his
now famous seven epistles in Greek addressed to the Christian
communities of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, Smyrna
and a personal one to St. Polycarp. They were all probably written during
two or three weeks in the summer of 116 AD. These were letters of
encouragement, edification and gratitude to those who had given him
assistance. The principal themes emerging from his epistles include the
authority of the clergy, the Eucharist as the real flesh of Christ, the hatred
of heresy and division (Docetism and the Judaizers) and the greatness of
3
Warren H. Carroll, The Founding of Christendom, Ibid., p. 455. Virtually nothing
is known of the Popes during these years – Evaristus, Alexander I, and Sixtus I –
besides their names, nationality and years of office.
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