Catholic Fire

Today, October. 17, the Roman Catholic Church remembers the early Church Father, bishop, and martyr Saint Ignatius of Antioch , whose writings attest to the sacramental and hierarchical nature of the Church from its earliest days. Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate his memory on Dec. 20. In a 2007 general audience on St. Ignatius of Antioch, Pope Benedict XVI observed that “no Church Father has expressed the longing for union with Christ and for life in him with the intensity of Ignatius.” In his letters, the Pope said, “one feels the freshness of the faith of the generation which had still known the Apostles. In these letters, the ardent love of a saint can also be felt.” Born in Syria in the middle of the first century A.D., Ignatius is said to have been personally instructed – along with another future martyr, Saint Polycarp – by the Apostle Saint John. When Ignatius became the Bishop of Antioch around the year 70, he assumed leadership of a local ch...

Barlaam was born at Antioch. He lived as an uneducated Christian peasant and was jailed for his faith during the persecution of Diocletian. He was brought to trial in 304, was scourged, racked, tortured, and ordered to deny his faith, but refused. In an effort to make it look as though Barlaam were making an incense offering to an idol, the judge had the prisoner's hand covered in incense, then held over the coals of a brazier. He thought that when Barlaam flinched from the pain, the incense would fall in the fire, he could declare that Barlaam had made sacrifice, and he could be turned loose as an example. Instead, Barlaam never flinched. When his entire hand had burned off, the judge gave up and had him murdered. He was a martyr for the faith. He died in 304 at Caesarea, Cappadocia.

Saint Josaphat was born in the Ukraine of Orthodox parents about the year 1580 and given the name John at baptism. He entered the Basilian monastery of the Trinity at Vilna in 1604, taking the name Josaphat. He was ordained priest in 1609 and was chosen bishop of Polock in 1614. Josaphat was a famous preacher who worked to bring unity among the faithful, and bring strayed Christians back to the Church. In a sermon, he himself spoke of his death as imminent. When he visited Vitebsk (now in Russia) on November 12, 1623, his enemies attacked his lodging and murdered a number of his companions. Meekly the man of God hastened toward the mob and, full of love, cried, "My children, what are you doing? If you have something against me, see, here I am." With furious cries of "Kill the papist!", they rushed upon him with gun and sword. Josaphat's body was thrown into the river but emerged, surrounded by rays of light, and was recovered. His murderers, when sentenced to d...

Today is the memorial of St. Ignatius, one of the great Bishops of the early Church. In the Martyrology we read: "At Rome, the holy bishop and martyr Ignatius. He was the second successor to the apostle Peter in the see of Antioch. In the persecution of Trajan he was condemned to the wild beasts and sent in chains to Rome. There, by the emperor's order, he was subjected to most cruel tortures in the presence of the Senate and then thrown to the lions. Torn to pieces by their teeth, he became a victim for Christ." The Apostles Peter and Paul, who planted the faith in Antioch, left directions that Ignatius should succeed Evodius as bishop of that city. Ignatius served as bishop of Antioch for forty years, proving himself an exemplary pastor. On the journey to Rome he wrote seven different letters to seven different churches. In these he discussed Christ, the structure of the Church, and the Christian life. He was condemned to death by being thrown to wild animals and was ma...

John Fisher was born at Beverly, Yorkshire, England in 1469. He was chaplain to the mother of Henry VIII and chancellor of Cambridge University before being elevated to the bishopric of Rochester in 1504. He counted Thomas More among his friends. John Fisher and his friend Saint Thomas More gave up their lives in testimony to the unity of the Church and to the indissolubility of marriage. John Fisher opposed the divorce between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon and the constitution of the so-called Anglican Church. Because he refused to swear an oath affirming the supremacy of the king as Supreme Head of the church of England, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. There he received the title of Cardinal granted him by Pope Paul III. He was condemned to death by torture, but this penalty was changed to beheading because the 66-year-old Cardinal was ill and too weak to endure torture. He was martyred on June 22, 1535 and buried in the churchyard of All Hallows, Barking, without rite...