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ST. IRENAEUS of LYONS
Hagiography
Information as
to his life is scarce, and in some measure inexact. He
was born in Proconsular Asia, or at least in some
province bordering thereon, in the first half of the
second century; the exact date is controverted, between
the years 115 and 125, according to some, or, according
to others, between 130 and 142. It is certain that,
while still very young, Irenaeus had seen and heard the
holy Bishop Polycarp (d. 155) at Smyrna. During the
persecution of Marcus Aurelius, Irenaeus was a priest of
the Church of Lyons. The clergy of that city, many of
whom were suffering imprisonment for the Faith, sent him
(177 or 178) to Rome with a letter to Pope Eleutherius
concerning Montanism, and on that occasion bore emphatic
testimony to his merits. Returning to Gaul, Irenaeus
succeeded the martyr Saint Pothinus as Bishop of Lyons.
During the religious peace which followed the
persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the new bishop divided
his activities between the duties of a pastor and of a
missionary (as to which we have but brief data, late and
not very certain) and his writings, almost all of which
were directed against Gnosticism, the heresy then
spreading in Gaul and elsewhere. In 190 or 191 he
interceded with Pope Victor to lift the sentence of
excommunication laid by that pontiff upon the Christian
communities of Asia Minor which persevered in the
practice of the Quartodecimans in regard to the
celebration of Easter. Nothing is known of the date of
his death, which must have occurred at the end of the
second or the beginning of the third century. In spite
of some isolated and later testimony to that effect, it
is not very probable that he ended his career with
martyrdom. His feast is celebrated on 28 June in the
Latin Church, and on 23 August in the Greek.
Irenaeus wrote
in Greek many works which have secured for him an
exceptional place in Christian literature, because in
controverted religious questions of capital importance
they exhibit the testimony of a contemporary of the
heroic age of the Church, of one who had heard St.
Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, and who, in a
manner, belonged to the Apostolic Age. None of these
writings have come down to us in the original text,
though a great many fragments of them are extant as
citations in later writers (Hippolytus, Eusebius, etc.).
Two of these works, however, have reached us in their
entirety in a Latin version:
A treatise in
five books, commonly entitled Adversus haereses, and
devoted, according to its true title, to the "Detection
and Overthrow of the False Knowledge." Of this work we
possess a very ancient Latin translation, the scrupulous
fidelity of which is beyond doubt. It is the chief work
of Irenaeus and truly of the highest importance; it
contains a profound exposition not only of Gnosticism
under its different forms, but also of the principal
heresies which had sprung up in the various Christian
communities, and thus constitutes an invaluable source
of information on the most ancient ecclesiastical
literature from its beginnings to the end of the second
century. In refuting the heterodox systems Irenaeus
often opposes to them the true doctrine of the Church,
and in this way furnishes positive and very early
evidence of high importance. Suffice it to mention the
passages, so often and so fully commented upon by
theologians and polemical writers, concerning the origin
of the Gospel according to St. John, the Holy Eucharist,
and the primacy of the Roman Church.
Of a second
work, written after the "Adversus Haereses", an ancient
literal translation in the Armenian language. This is
the "Proof of the Apostolic Preaching." The author's aim
here is not to confute heretics, but to confirm the
faithful by expounding the Christian doctrine to them,
and notably by demonstrating the truth of the Gospel by
means of the Old Testament prophecies. Although it
contains fundamentally, so to speak, nothing that has
not already been expounded in the "Adversus Haereses",
it is a document of the highest interest, and a
magnificent testimony of the deep and lively faith of
Irenaeus.
Of his other works only scattered fragments exist; many,
indeed, are known only through the mention made of them
by later writers, not even fragments of the works
themselves having come down to us. These are:
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a treatise
against the Greeks entitled "On the Subject of
Knowledge" (mentioned by Eusebius);
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a writing
addressed to the Roman priest Florinus "On the
Monarchy, or How God is not the Cause of Evil"
(fragment in Eusebius);
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a work "On
the Ogdoad", probably against the Ogdoad of
Valentinus the Gnostic, written for the same priest
Florinus, who had gone over to the sect of the
Valentinians (fragment in Eusebius);
-
a treatise
on schism, addressed to Blastus (mentioned by
Eusebius);
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a letter to
Pope Victor against the Roman priest Florinus
(fragment preserved in Syriac);
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another
letter to the same on the Paschal controversies
(extracts in Eusebius);
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other
letters to various correspondents on the same
subject (mentioned by Eusebius, a fragment preserved
in Syriac);
-
a book of
divers discourses, probably a collection of homilies
(mentioned by Eusebius); and other minor works for
which we have less clear or less certain
attestations.
The four
fragments which Pfaff published in 1715, ostensibly from
a Turin manuscript, have been proven by Funk to be
apocryphal, and Harnack has established the fact that
Pfaff himself fabricated them.
- from the
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Baptism that Liberates
When
the Lord told his disciples to go and teach all nations and to baptize them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he
conferred on them the power of giving men new life in God. He had promised
through the prophets that in these last days he would pour out his Spirit on his
servants and handmaids, and that they would prophesy. So when the Son of God
became the Son of Man, the Spirit also descended upon him, becoming accustomed
in this way to dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting
God’s creation. The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in men who had grown
old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ.
Luke says that the Spirit came
down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to
open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them the new
covenant. So it was that men of every language joined in singing one song of
praise to God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were
offered to the Father as the first fruits of all the nations.
This was why the Lord had
promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like
dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without
moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water
that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest
unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never
have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through
the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body;
through the Spirit we have become one in soul.
The Spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and
the fear of God came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this
Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into
which, according to his own words, the devil too had been cast down like
lightning. If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of
God. Since we have our accuser, we need an Advocate as well. And so the Lord in
his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, having himself
bound up his wounds and left for his care two coins bearing the royal image,
entrusted him to the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, the image and
inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty
to use the coin committed to our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the
Lord.
-from the treatise Against
Heresies
by Saint Irenaeus
(Lib. 3, 17. 1-3: SC 34, 302-306)
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We are
Byzantine Christians who strive to live and spread the
Gospel of Jesus Christ to those of our age.
Who is St Irenaeus?
Born between
115 and 125 in or near Proconsular Asia; Priest of the
Church of Lyons under the persecution of Marcus
Aurelius, Bishop of Lyons, successor to the holy martyr
St. Pothinus; Martyred in 202; Major influences: St.
Polycarp of Smyrna; Contribution: as a bishop dedicated
to being a pastor and a missionary, he was heroic in his
battle against the heresy of Gnosticism.
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Irenaeus' Writings
Early Christian Writings Website
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume One
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