Journey to Smyrna
The road to Rome was long and dusty, the guards hot and sullen as they made another weary stop in their 1,500 mile journey from ancient Antioch to the Roman capital. This time they stopped in Smyrna, a flourishing Roman city on the coast of the Aegean Sea where they could rest their travel-weary bodies for several weeks before boarding a final ship for Rome. The surly guards glared at the man whom they were transporting in chains to the Emperor Trajan. What a nuisance these Christians were, they grumbled as they slammed the jail door behind Ignatius, the fearless bishop of Antioch.
Just a few weeks earlier, Ignatius stood before the Roman authorities and a furious mob in the city courts of Antioch, the fourth-largest city in the Roman Empire. The Christian community was growing very quickly in this prosperous Syrian city, and the pagan citizens were becoming agitated by these “strange believers and their Christian God.” Accusing the Christian leader, Ignatius, of disrupting society and breaking Roman law, the authorities arrested him in order to silence his teachings and to spread fear through the rest of the Christian community. “Renounce your faith in Jesus Christ or die!” was the threat. Refusing to deny his faith, Ignatius was sentenced to appear before the Emperor Trajan, who wanted to interrogate the Christian leader before throwing him to the wild beasts in the newly built Roman Colosseum. The pagan citizens of Antioch roared their approval and Ignatius began his road to martyrdom.
Sentenced to the Beasts
Ignatius Theophorus (which translates God-bearing) was born in Antioch in ancient Syria (modern-day Antakya, Turkey) around the year AD 50. As a young man, he traveled throughout the western Mediterranean cities including the infamously pagan city of Ephesus, home to the Temple of Artemis (Diana) and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was also a thriving center for early Christianity and the home church of the apostle John during his final years. In Ephesus, Ignatius was blessed to be one of John’s disciples and to study the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ directly under the beloved apostle himself. In the dark, sin-eroded world of Ephesus, Ignatius’ powerful Christian teachings and fearless evangelism encouraged the entire Christian population.
By the year AD 89, Ignatius was ordained as the overseer or bishop of Antioch, Syria, which also had a growing Christian community. Antioch’s Christian church had been founded fifty years earlier when the disciples fled from Jerusalem after Stephen was martyred. Ignatius was a strong leader—sharing the apostle’s teachings, standing up against the early heresies of the church, and spreading the gospel of Christ throughout Syria. Early in the year AD 107, Ignatius’ Christian influence became too much for the Roman elite in the city. He was arrested, brought before the governor, and ordered to renounce his faith. Three times he was asked to deny Christ; three times he adamantly refused, so he was condemned as a “Christian agitator.” Rather than executing Ignatius in Antioch where he was so well-loved, he was sentenced to be taken to Rome, first to appear before Emperor Trajan and then to die in the Colosseum, fed to the animals.
I Fight with Wild Beasts
Ignatius’ guards were so cruel to him on the journey, he referred to them as ten ferocious leopards: “From Syria even unto Rome I fight with beasts, both by land and sea, both by night and by day, being bound to ten leopards, I mean a band of soldiers, who, even when they receive benefits, show themselves all the worse.” But in spite of the guards’ cruelty, Ignatius was still permitted to meet with Christian visitors in every city along the way.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Date: 16th December 2023
Martyr: Ignatius Theophorus
Location: Not specified
Source: God’s Generals: The Martyrs
Author: Roberts Liardon
Suffering Saturday 069
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