Ignatius — surnamed Theophorus, 'God-bearer' — was bishop of Antioch in Syria, the city where 'the disciples were first called Christians' (Acts 11:26). He may have been a disciple of John the Apostle. He served as bishop for forty years.
Arrested under the emperor Trajan, he was sent in chains under guard to Rome to die in the arena. Along the road, he wrote seven letters that survive — to the churches at Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, Smyrna, and to Polycarp of Smyrna himself. The letters are the earliest theology of the bishop, the Eucharist, and the unity of the Church we possess outside the New Testament.
He pleaded with the Roman Christians not to use their influence to spare him: 'I am God's wheat, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread of Christ.' He was, by tradition, killed by lions in the Colosseum around the year 107.