![\"\"](\"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ignatiusbite.jpg\")
The final two letters of St. Ignatius which we read are both sent to the city of Smyrna. \u00a0The first letter is sent to the Church as a whole, the second specifically to their bishop, Polycarp.<\/p>\nThe final two letters of St. Ignatius which we read are both sent to the city of Smyrna. \u00a0The first letter is sent to the Church as a whole, the second specifically to their bishop, Polycarp.<\/p>\n
This first letter is special for many reasons, but particularly because it contains Ignatius’ clearest declaration of faith about the Eucharist, as well as being the earliest recorded use of the phrase “Catholic Church”. Invented at Nicea? \u00a0I don’t think so.<\/p>\n
Here is my abridged version of the letter:<\/p>\n
\u201cSt. Ignatius of Antioch\u2019s letter to the Smyrnaeans\u201d PDF<\/a> The final two letters of St. Ignatius which we read are both sent to the city of Smyrna. \u00a0The first letter is sent to the Church as a whole, the second specifically to their bishop, Polycarp. This first letter is special for many reasons, but particularly because it contains Ignatius’ clearest declaration of faith about the Eucharist, as well as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,17,23],"tags":[51,2969,79,87],"class_list":["post-921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-faith","category-church-fathers","tag-early-church-fathers","tag-featured","tag-ignatius-of-antioch","tag-jp2-group"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56289,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions\/56289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cSt. Ignatius of Antioch\u2019s letter to the Smyrnaeans\u201d Audio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"