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“I am the wheat of God and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of God.” So wrote Bishop Ignatius of Antioch (in Syria) as he was being taken to Rome under close military guard.

It is unsure why Ignatius had been arrested, but his journey was more like a triumphal procession than a journey to death. At nearly every stop, he met leaders of the local church, and he wrote letters to a series of churches and one to Bishop Polycarp in Smyrna. Yet there is no indication that anyone else was ever in danger of arrest.

We know almost nothing about Ignatius’s life except his journey to Rome and his death. In his letters we see a man with a passion for Christ, for martyrdom, and for the right faith. He warns against a heresy with Docetic elements (the belief that God’s Son only appeared to be human). Ignatius was so concerned for sound doctrine that he wrote that anyone who said Christ only seemed to suffer could not really be a martyr. Further, Ignatius taught that the bishop is the proper safeguard for sound teaching and, in fact, there can be no church without the bishop.

Ignatius’s letters give us rare insight into the mind of a martyr. He wanted to die and considered his death an imitation of the passion of Christ and an atoning sacrifice. One reason for his letter to Rome was to be sure they did nothing to secure his release.

Ignatius was martyred in Rome during the reign of Emperor Trajan, and tradition holds that he died in the Colosseum.

Justin was born in Samaria around A.D. 130. As an adult, he searched for truth in pagan philosophy but was not satisfied, and around A.D. 130 he converted to Christianity. Justin taught for a while at Ephesus and later moved to Rome, where he gathered disciples into a philosophic “school.”

Justin’s First Apology, addressed to Emperor Antoninus Pius, was published in 155. Apologies were explanations of the faith, designed to show that Christianity was not a threat to the state and should be treated as a legal religion. Today, the First Apology also is important for what it tells us about second-century baptismal and eucharistic practices.

Soon after 155, Justin published his Dialogue with Trypho, an argument with a Jew about the true interpretation of Scripture. The Dialogue with Trypho teaches three main points: The Old Covenant is passing away to make place for the New; the Logos is the God of the Old Testament; the Gentiles are the new Israel.

Justin’s Second Apology was written soon after Marcus Aurelius became emperor in 161. In these writings Justin tried to show that the Christian faith alone was truly rational. He taught that the Logos (Word) became incarnate to teach humanity truth and to redeem people from the power of the demons.

Justin and some of his disciples were denounced as Christians sometime in 165 and taken before the prefect of Rome. The prefect asked them if they were Christians, and if they would sacrifice to the gods. Justin replied, “No one who is rightly minded turns from true belief to false.”

When the prefect threatened them with death, Justin said, “If we are punished for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, we hope to be saved.… ”

They were taken out and beheaded.

Lyons was the Roman capital of Gaul and one of the most important cities in the Empire. The persecution there (and in nearby Vienne) in 177 was local, inspired perhaps by a celebration in honor of the goddess Roma, the genius of Rome.
To gain evidence against the Christians, citizens of Lyons (modern Lyon, France) tortured several of the Christians’ slaves. The slaves quickly said their owners were guilty of incest and cannibalism, two common charges against the Christians. These accusations inflamed the prejudices of the mob, who demanded action. In all, 48 Christians died either in prison or in the arena.
Blandina, a Christian slave girl, is typical of the incredible suffering endured by this church. As a letter from the church says, “Blandina was filled with such power that those who by turns kept torturing her in every way from dawn until evening were worn out and exhausted, and themselves confessed defeat from lack of aught else to do to her; they marveled that the breath still remained in a body all mangled and covered with gaping wounds, and they testified that a single form of torture was sufficient to render life extinct, let alone such and so many.”
Blandina stood firm in her faith, however, and when she was returned to the prison, she encouraged the other prisoners to stand firm in their faith.
Blandina’s ordeal was far from over, however. Later she was tied to a cross in the arena and wild beasts were let loose on her. The letter says that others who were being tortured in the arena gained strength by looking at Blandina and hearing her prayers, for they saw in her the image of the Christ who had suffered for them all. Since none of the beasts would touch her, Blandina was cut down and put back in prison.
Later, Blandina was brought back into the arena, scourged, put on a redhot iron grill, and finally gored and tossed by a bull before she died.
Like their counterparts in Asia and North Africa, the martyrs at Lyons saw their suffering as part of the battle against the Antichrist and a sign of the end of the age and the final victory of Christ. They believed their faithfulness was a key part of Christ’s victory.
Irenaeus says that soon after this persecution the church began a mission to the rural population of the area. So the faith of the martyrs not only saw the church through a time of terrible suffering, it also helped lay the foundation for mission in the next decade.

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