LOLSaints

Happy hunting!

St. Ignatius was one of the very first bishops of Antioch, the place where Christians were first called Christians, according to the Book of Acts.

Condemned as a Christian, Ignatius was escorted to Rome by soldiers to be executed there for treason (that is, the crime of being Christian). On the way, he wrote a series of letters to different churches (in which he referred to his military escort as a herd of leopards). These letters stressed two important themes:

1. Christian Unity. Ignatius urged that Christians not splinter off into fragmented, individual groups. Rather, he urged that they gather together in unity around their bishop, as around Christ. The Eucharist meant a communion of lives as well as communion with God.
2. In a time when people spoke of Christ as God's divine Son, Ignatius insisted that we never forget that in Jesus Christ, God really became human, really lived, really died, and really rose again.

Source: St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church