Victor R. Claveau, MJ
The Gospel of St. Luke (9:47) describes how Jesus took a little boy by the hand, stood him by his side and said to his apostles: “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me …”
According to tradition, the little boy, converted by St. John, was St. Ignatius of Antioch, Turkey. Scholar Joseph Holzner tells us that, when Ignatius was 15-years-old, he listened to St. Paul preach in the synagogue of Tarsus, just prior to St. Paul departing on his first missionary journey to Cyprus.* According to St. John Chrysostom (347-407, an Apostle ordained Ignatius to the priesthood, and Theodoret, the Bishop of Cyrus (393-457), informs us St. Peter installed Ignatius as the third bishop of Antioch. He knew and worked with St. John, the “disciple that Jesus loved,” for as many as 30 years.
Ignatius was sentenced during the Emperor Trajan’s reign (98-117) to be devoured by wild beasts in the arena at Rome because he refused to burn incense before a statue of Trajan as divine emperor. On the way to the Eternal City, he composed seven letters. Of these, five were addressed to the Christian communities of Ephesus, Magnesia, Trallians, Philadelphians and Smyrna. A sixth letter was addressed to his brother bishop, Polycarp the Bishop of Smyrna. In each of these letters, we find Ignatius chastising as well encouraging the churches.
St. Ignatius, also called Theophorus (God Bearer), wrote during the very beginning of the second century. And there was no individual in the early Church with a more comprehensive knowledge of Sacred Tradition.
In his letters, Ignatius of Antioch makes five references to Mary as Virgin and Mother.
To the Ephesians: 7.2,
There is one Physician who is possessed both of flesh and spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both of Mary and of God; first possible and then impossible, even Jesus Christ our Lord.
To the Ephesians: 18:2,
For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water.
To the Ephesians: 19:1,
Now the virginity of Mary was hidden from the prince of this world, as was also her offspring, and the death of the Lord; three mysteries of renown, which were wrought in silence by God.
Trallians 9.1,
Stop your ears, therefore, when any one speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born, and did eat and drink.
Smyrnaeans 1.1,
I glorify God, even Jesus Christ, who has given you such wisdom. For I have observed that ye are perfected in an immoveable faith, as if ye were nailed to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, both in the flesh and in the spirit, and are established in love through the blood of Christ, being fully persuaded with respect to our Lord, that He was truly of the seed of David according to the flesh, and the Son of God according to the will and power of God; that He was truly born of a virgin, was baptized by John, in order that all righteousness might be fulfilled by Him; and was truly, under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch, nailed [to the cross] for us in His flesh. Of this fruit we are by His divinely-blessed passion, that He might set up a standard for all ages, through His resurrection, to all His holy and faithful [followers], whether among Jews or Gentiles, in the one body of His Church.
* Joseph Holzner, Paul of Tarsus (St. Louis: B. Herder Book CO, 1955) p. 99.