Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer is of particular importance to us because he communicated closely with the apostles, heard Christian teaching directly from them, and witnessed the spread and development of the first Christian communities. In his seven letters, he captured for us the apostolic age.
Saint Ignatius was born in Syria during the last years of the Savior's life. His biography tells us that he was the boy whom the Lord took in his arms and said: "Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). He is called the God-bearer because, loving the Lord deeply, he carried Him as it were in his the heart. He was a disciple of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. It is clear from St. Ignatius' epistle to the Smyrnians that he was especially close to the Apostle Peter and accompanied him on some of his apostolic journeys. Shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem in 72, Evod, one of the seventy disciples of Christ, died, and Ignatius became his successor at the Antiochian see (in the capital of Syria).
Saint Ignatius ruled the Antiochian Church for 40 years (67-107). In a special vision, he was honored to see heavenly worship and hear angelic singing. Following the model of the angelic world, he introduced antiphonal singing at divine services, in which the two choirs alternate and seem to echo each other. This chant from Syria spread quickly in the early Church.
In 107, during a campaign against the Armenians, Emperor Trajan passed through Antioch. He was informed that St. Ignatius professes Christ, teaches to despise wealth, to keep virginity and not to sacrifice to the Roman gods. The emperor summoned the saint and demanded that he stop his preaching about Christ. The elder refused. Then he was sent in chains to Rome, where, for the amusement of the people, he was given to the beasts in the Colosseum.
On his way to Rome, he wrote seven epistles that have survived to this day. In his epistles, Saint Ignatius asks Christians not to try to save him from death: "I beg you, do not show me untimely love. Leave me to be the food of the beasts in order to reach God through them. I am the wheat of God. May the teeth of the beasts grind me, that I may become the pure bread of Christ." After hearing about the saint's courage, Trajan stopped the persecution of Christians. His relics were transferred to Antioch, and subsequently returned to Rome and laid in the church in the name of Holy Martyr Clement, Pope of Rome.
In his epistle to the Ephesians, Saint Ignatius wrote: "Keep faith and love and show yourself to be Christians in practice. Faith and love are the beginning and the end of life. Faith is the beginning, and love is the end, and both are the work of God when combined. Everything else related to virtue comes from them. No one who professes faith sins, and no one who has acquired love hates."