St. Irenaeus, Bishop/Martyr

Today the Church of Lyons presents to the admiration of the whole world her own great Doctor, the valiant Irenaeus, who shines as the light of the West. But while contemplating him confirming with his own blood the doctrine he had preached, let us hearken to his words bearing testimony to holy Church, words of world-side celebrity, confounding hell and closing the mouth of heresy. Let us hearken to this zealous pupil of Polycarp, a disciple of St. John, the Apostle. Listen to him who for this very reason is considered to be the most authentic witness to the Faith in all the Churches of the second century, all which Churches bow down before Rome. He writes: For it behooves all the rest because of her superior principality to agree with her; in her do all the Faithful of whatsoever place preserve ever pure the Faith once preached to them. Great and venerable above all others because of her antiquity, known to all, founded by Peter and Paul, the two most glorious of the Apostles, her Bishops are, by their succession, the channel whereby Apostolic Tradition is transmitted to us in all its integrity: in such sort, that whosoever differs from her in his belief, by this fact alone stands confounded."

The Church is fortunate that Irenaeus was involved in many of its controversies in the second century. He was a student, well trained, no doubt, with great patience in investigating, tremendously protective of apostolic teaching, but prompted more by a desire to win over his opponents than to prove them in error.

As bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who took their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. St. Irenaeus, chosen by God to oppose to the Gnostic arguments of his own powerful logic, and to re-establish, in opposition thereunto, the true sense of Holy Scripture, excelled most of all when, in the face of a thousand sects bearing on their brow the visible mark of the 'father of discord and lies', he pointed to the Church maintaining as sacred throughout the universe the whole of Tradition, just as received from the Apostles. After thoroughly investigating the various Gnostic sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he contrasted with the teaching of the Apostles and the text of Holy Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and translated into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics.

After he had preached that all were obligated to come to the True Faith, he was crowned with martyrdom, together with an almost countless multitude whom he had himself brought over to the knowledge and practice of the True Faith; he passed away unto heaven in the year of 202AD. This was during the reign of Septimius Severius Augustus, who commanded that all those who persisted in the practice of the Christian religion should be condemned to the most cruel torments and death.

A group of Christians in Asia Minor had been excommunicated by Pope Victor I because of their refusal to accept the Western church’s date for celebrating Easter. Irenaeus, the “lover of peace” as his name indicates, interceded with the pope to lift the ban, indicating that this was not an essential matter and that these people were merely following an old tradition, one that men such as Saint Polycarp (February 23) and Pope Anicetus had not seen as divisive. The pope responded favorably and the rift was healed. Some one hundred years later, the Western practice was voluntarily adopted.


A deep and genuine concern for other people will remind us that the discovery of truth is not to be a victory for some and a defeat for others. Unless all can claim a share in that victory, truth itself will continue to be rejected by the losers, because it will be regarded as inseparable from the yoke of defeat. And so, confrontation, controversy and the like might yield to a genuine united search for God's truth and how it can best be served.


“So unbridled is their madness, that they declare they have in their power all things which are irreligious and impious, and are at liberty to practice them; for they maintain that things are evil or good, simply in virtue of human opinion. They deem it necessary, therefore, that by means of transmigration from body to body, souls should have experience of every kind of life as well as every kind of action (unless, indeed, by a single incarnation, one may be able to prevent any need for others, by once for all, and with equal completeness, doing all those things which we dare not either speak or hear of, nay, which we must not even conceive in our thoughts, nor think credible, if any such thing is mooted among those persons who are our fellow-citizens), in order that, as their writings express it, their souls, having made trial of every kind of life, may, at their departure, not be wanting in any particular. It is necessary to insist upon this, lest, on account of some one thing being still wanting to their deliverance, they should be compelled once more to become incarnate.”

Irenaeus, Against Heresies (a worthwhile read), 1.25.4

The above quote could be in effect for these days when everyone 'seems' to know the truth about everything, excepting the real Truth.