Ignatius converted to Christianity at a young age. Later in his life he was chosen to serve as a Bishop of Antioch, succeeding Saint Peter and St. Evodius (who died around AD 67). The 4th-century Church historian Eusebius records that Ignatius succeeded Evodius. Making his apostolic succession even more immediate, Theodoret of Cyrrhus reported that St. Peter himself appointed Ignatius to the episcopal see of Antioch. Ignatius called himself Theophorus (God Bearer). A tradition arose that he was one of the children whom Jesus took in his arms and blessed.
Ignatius is one of the five Apostolic Fathers (the earliest authoritative group of the Church Fathers). He based his authority on being a bishop of the Church, living his life in the imitation of Christ. Some believe that Ignatius, along with his friend Polycarp, were disciples of John the Apostle.
Epistles attributed to Ignatius report his arrest by the authorities and travel to Rome:
From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only grow worse when they are kindly treated.
— Ignatius to the Romans, 5.
– Wikipedia
St. Ignatius was the first to use the term “Catholic Church” in his Letter to the Smrynaeans (8:2).
“I am writing to all the churches and am insisting to everyone that I die for God
of my own free will – unless you hinder me.
I implore you: do not be unseasonably kind to me.
Let me be food for the wild beasts, through whom I can reach God.
I am God’s wheat, and I am being ground by the teeth of the wild beasts,
that I may be found pure bread of Christ.”
– Letter of Ignatius of Antioch to the Romans IV
