Sunday, August 23

Early Church · c. 130 – 202

St Irenaeus of Lyons

Bishop of Lyons, refuter of the Gnostics

Irenaeus grew up in Smyrna in Asia Minor, where as a boy he heard the aged bishop Polycarp, who had himself known the apostle John — a living chain back to the Lord that Irenaeus treasured all his life. He served as presbyter among the Greek-speaking Christians of Lyons in Gaul, and after the terrible persecution of 177 claimed the martyred Pothinus's place as bishop. His great work 'Against Heresies' patiently exposed the Gnostic systems and set against them the Church's rule of faith, the public succession of teaching from the apostles, and a magnificent vision of salvation as recapitulation: Christ passing through every stage of human life to heal it, so that 'the glory of God is a living man, and the life of man is the vision of God.' True to his name, 'the peaceable,' he urged Pope Victor to gentleness in the dispute over the date of Pascha. Later tradition honors him as a martyr, around 202.

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