Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius was bishop of Antioch in Syria and was martyred in Rome, probably during the reign of Trajan (around AD 108, though some scholars place it later). While being transported under guard from Antioch to Rome for execution, he wrote seven letters to churches in Asia Minor and Rome that survive as some of the most passionate documents of early Christianity.

The letters burn with an almost frightening eagerness for martyrdom: "Let me be food for the wild beasts, through whom I can attain to God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts." But they are also theologically precise, insisting on the reality of Christ's incarnation and suffering against docetic heretics, and arguing powerfully for the authority of the bishop as the centre of church unity. The threefold ministry of bishop, presbyter, and deacon appears in Ignatius more clearly than in any earlier source.

The authenticity of the letters was debated for centuries — a longer, interpolated collection circulated widely — but the "middle recension" of seven letters is now accepted as genuine by virtually all scholars.