Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius was bishop of Antioch in Syria, one of the earliest centers of Christianity, where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. According to early tradition he was the third bishop of the city, and some later writers said he had known the apostles. During the reign of the emperor Trajan he was arrested and sent under armed guard to Rome to be put to death. Along the way, at Smyrna and Troas in Asia Minor, he was met by Christians from nearby churches, and he wrote seven letters, to the churches at Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Philadelphia, Smyrna and Rome, and to Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna. In them he urged unity around the bishop, priests and deacons, warned against teachers who denied that Christ truly had a body and truly suffered, and spoke of the Eucharist. His letter to the Romans begged them not to try to save him, saying he was God's wheat to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts. He was killed in Rome, by tradition in the arena.

Faith: Third bishop of Antioch and early Christian martyr; venerated as a saint. Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)