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| Icon of the martyrdom of Saint Ignatius |
"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 24:14
The next few months of this blog will look at the lives of missionaries through the ages. It is my hope that you will be encouraged and strengthened in your faith as you see God's hand working through the lives of ordinary people as they followed the will of an extraordinary God.
The first period of time covers the time of the Apostolic Church, Christ to 500 AD. During this time, Christians often came into conflict with the Roman government because they refused to worship Caesar as God. Despite the persecution, "by the end of the third century, the majority of the residents of some areas controlled by Rome were Christians converts. (The Gospel had reached such places as Sri Lanka, Algeria, Portugal, Morocco, Britain, France, India, Switzerland and Belgium, with Armenia accepting Christianity as their state religion in 304 AD...see Timeline of Christian Missions). The high cost of following Christ was more to be treasured than the Roman sword," Foxes Voices of the Martyrs. And God brought great good out of this persecution because as persecution arose in one area, Christians would flee to other regions, thus spreading the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.
The missionaries that will be highlighted during this period are:
Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 AD)
Polycarp of Smyrna (70-155 AD)
Ulfilas (311-381 AD)
Patrick (389-461 AD)
Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 AD)
"I would rather die for Christ than rule the whole earth."
Born around the time of Jesus' return to Heaven, Ignatius was good friends with the disciple John. Tradition says that he was one of the children that Jesus took in His arms and blessed. It is believed that his appointment to be bishop of Antioch came from the apostle Peter. Ignatius "wrote with a focus on Christ and the unity of the church - themes he sounded before the trial court (held when he was seventy-two) where he faced trumped up charges of disloyalty to Rome for failing to bow to pagan deities," (Foxes, 49).
Ignatius was part of new spiritual movement whose followers could never again offer Rome ultimate loyalty. "Throughly devoted to Christ...he was part of that great generation who taught and built the church, buried the apostles, collected their writings, stood before the emperor's psychotic wrath, and fought heretics and swindlers infiltrating the movement," (Foxes, 50).
En route to his martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius wrote a series of seven letters which have been preserved as an example of very early Christian theology. Important topics addressed in these letters include ecclesiology, the sacraments, and the role of bishops. The letters were addressed
- To the Ephesians (Turkey)
- To the Magnesians (Turkey)
- Letter to the Trallians (Turkey)
- To the Romans (Italy)
- To the Philadelphians (Turkey)
- To the Smyrnaeans (Turkey)
- To Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (Ignatius).
He was sent to the lions by Emperor Trajan, with these words to those who knew him, "Now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing of visible or invisible things so that I may but win Christ. Come fire and cross and grapplings with wild beasts, the rending of my bones and body...only let it be mine to attain Christ." (Foxes, 50).
