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)
St. Ignatius of Antioch is one of the Apostolic Fathers (the earliest authoritative group of the Church Fathers). St. Ignatius, along with his friend Polycarp were disciples of the Apostle John. Besides his Greek name, Ἰγνάτιος, Ignatius, he also called himself Θεοφόρος, Theophorus (“God Bearer”), and tradition says he was one of the children Jesus took in His arms and blessed.
St. Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch after St. Peter and St. Evodius (who died around AD 67). Eusebius records that St. Ignatius succeeded St. Evodius. Making his apostolic succession even more immediate, Theodoret (Dial. Immutab., I, iv, 33a) reported that Peter himself appointed Ignatius to the see of Antioch.
108 A.D.
Along the route to Rome, St. Ignatius wrote six letters to the churches in the region and one to a fellow bishop. He was sentenced to die in the Colosseum, to be eaten by lions. In his Chronicle, Eusebius gives the date of his death as AA 2124 (2124 years after Adam), which would amount to the 11th year of Trajan, i.e. 108 AD
