Irenaeus of Lyon

Irenaeus was born in Asia Minor, probably in Smyrna, where as a boy he heard the preaching of Bishop Polycarp, who had known the apostle John. He moved to Gaul and became a priest in Lyon. In 177, during a violent persecution in Lyon and Vienne in which many Christians, including the aged bishop Pothinus, were killed, Irenaeus was away in Rome carrying a letter. On his return he became bishop of Lyon. He preached in the local language and wrote his great work, usually called Against Heresies, in five books, examining and answering the Gnostic teachers, who claimed secret knowledge and taught that the material world was evil and made by a lesser god. Irenaeus argued that the one God created the world and is revealed in Christ, that the true faith is the one handed down openly from the apostles through the bishops of the churches, and he is one of the first writers to name the four Gospels together. He taught that Christ summed up and restored all of human history. He died around 202, by later tradition as a martyr.

Irenaeus of Lyon is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Bishop of Lyons and one of the most distinguished theologians of the early Church. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) (via Wikisource)