Ignatius of Antioch (d. ca. 107)

Bp. of Antioch, martyred in Rome.

Bp. of Antioch , martyred in Rome. His Letters (* CPG * 1025), written in Greek, survive in Syriac in three forms: 1. a short recension, consisting of ‘Letters to the Ephesians, the Romans, and Polycarp bishop of Smyrna’. This is known only in Syriac translation (ed. W. Cureton 1845, 1859; and W. Wright in J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2.3 [1889], 75–92); the Letter to the Romans was already quoted by Yoḥannan Iḥidaya (ed. Rignell, Briefe [1941], 90). The Syriac was later translated into Armenian and Arabic; 2. the middle recension, consisting of four further Letters (to the Christians of Magnesia, Tralles, Philadelphia, and Smyrna); all seven are generally thought to be genuine; and 3. a long recension with some further letters, as well as interpolations in the seven genuine ones.

The account of Ignatius’s martyrdom (* CPG * 1036) was also translated into Syriac (ed. Wright, in Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2.3, 103–24; and ed. Bedjan, Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum, vol. 3, 199–214).

His commemoration is on 17 Oct.