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“I plead with you. Do not do me an unseasonable kindness.”
So Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, wrote to the Christians in Rome late one summer exactly nineteen hundred years ago. “Let me be fodder for wild beasts—that is how I can get to God. I am God’s wheat and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts to make a pure loaf for Christ.”
What a curious request! When he wrote this letter, Ignatius was a prisoner being transported to Rome under sentence, literally, to be fed to the lions. His fear—his short letter to the Romans focuses entirely on this—was that believers in Rome would intervene and prevent his execution. As far as we know, there was no interference, and Ignatius did die in the Coliseum.
But why was Ignatius sentenced to death, and why was he so eager to die? He was certainly not the only…
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St. Ignatius, pray for us, that we can be witnesses like you in this world - strong but gentle, faithful teachers of the truth and joyful! Come, Holy Spirit! :-)
I AM A CATHOLIC. ALL DURING MY LIFE AND TO THE PRESENT DAY I BELIEVE DEATH TO BE A CELEBRATION. WE WERE TAUGHT THAT WHEN WE DIE WE WILL BE ONE WITH GOD IN HEAVEN. THAT AIN,T SUCH A BAD TEACHING. ST. IGNATIUS WAS NOT AFRAID OF DEATH. ST. IGNATIUS CAN AND SHOULD BE A GOOD EXAMPLE TO US IN THIS DAY AND AGE. WE LIVE A TROUBLED WORLD.