Chapter 1
Letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to St. Polycarp
Salutation
Ignatius, who is also called God-bearer, to Polycarp, bishop of the Church of the Smyrnaeans, and one who is overseen by God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, greetings in abundance.
1 Letter concerning the mind in God and pastoral care
1 Receiving your mind in God, which is established as upon an immovable rock, I glorify you exceedingly, having been deemed worthy of your spotless presence, of which may I benefit in God.
2 I urge you in the grace with which you are clothed to press forward in your race and to exhort everyone, so that they may be saved.
3 Guard your place with all care, both carnal and spiritual; be mindful of the unity, than which nothing is better.
4 Bear with everyone, just as the Lord bears with you; put up with them all in love, as in fact you do.
5 Devote yourself to unceasing prayers; ask for greater understanding than you have; stay awake, since you possess a spirit that never sleeps.
6 Speak to people one by one, in the manner of God; carry everyone’s illnesses, like a perfect athlete.[1]
7 Where the labor is greater, the gain is great.
2 On Discernment and Watchfulness
1 If you love only the good disciples, you have no credit; rather, bring the more troublesome ones into submission through gentleness.[2]
2 Not every wound is healed by the same poultice.
3 Calm acute attacks with cooling compresses.
4 Be wise as a serpent in all things, and forever innocent as the dove.
5 This is why you are both carnal and spiritual: so that you may deal gently, face to face, with what appears on the surface; but as for what is invisible, ask that it be revealed to you, so that you may lack nothing and abound in every gift of grace.[3]
6 The hour demands you — as winds demand a helmsman, and a harbour the storm-tossed sailor — that you may attain to God.
7 Be sober as God’s athlete; the prize is incorruption and eternal life, of which you yourself are already convinced.
8 In every way I am a ransom for you—I and these chains of mine, which you have loved.
3 Stand firm, like an anvil under the hammer.
1 Don’t let those who appear trustworthy yet teach strange doctrines throw you off.
2 Stand firm, like an anvil under the hammer.
3 It’s the mark of a great athlete to take blows and still win.
4 Above all, for God’s sake we have to endure everything, so that He too may endure us.
5 Be more diligent than you already are.
6 Study the times carefully.
7 Look for the One who is above time — the timeless, the invisible, who for our sake became visible; the intangible, the impassible, who for our sake became passible; the One who for our sake endured in every possible way.
4 On widows and slaves
1 Do not let the widows be neglected; after the Lord, you yourself are to be their guardian.
2 Let nothing be done without your consent, and do nothing yourself without God — as in fact you don’t. Stand firm.
3 Let the assemblies be held more frequently.
4 Seek out everyone by name.
5 Don’t treat male and female slaves with contempt; but neither should they themselves be puffed up — rather, let them serve all the more for the glory of God, so that they may obtain a better freedom from God.
6 They should not long to be set free at the community’s expense, lest they be found to be slaves of desire.
5 On chastity and marriage according to the Lord
1 Flee evil practices; better still, preach against them.[4]
2 Speak to my sisters, urging them to love the Lord and to be content with their husbands in flesh and spirit.
3 In the same way, charge my brothers in the name of Jesus Christ to love their wives as «the Lord loves the Church».
4 If anyone is able to remain in purity, in honor of the flesh of the Lord, let him remain so without boasting.
5 If he boasts, he is lost; and if it becomes known apart from the bishop, he is ruined.
6 It is fitting for men and women who marry to enter into their union with the bishop’s approval, so that the marriage may be according to the Lord and not according to desire.
7 Let everything be done for the honor of God.
6 Submission to the bishop and the virtue of the faithful
1 Pay attention to the bishop, so that God may also pay attention to you.
2 I give myself as a ransom for those who submit to the bishop, the presbyters, and the deacons; may it be granted me to share a portion with them in God.
3 Labor together, struggle together, run together, suffer together, rest together, rise together, as God’s stewards, assistants, and servants.
4 Please the One under whom you serve, from whom you also receive your wages. Let none of you be found a deserter.[5]
5 Let your baptism remain as your armor, faith as a helmet, love as a spear, endurance as full armor. Your deeds are your deposits, so that you may receive the back-pay you deserve.[6]
6 So bear with one another in gentleness, as God bears with you.
7 May I always have joy in you.
7 On sending a deacon to Syria
1 Since the Church in Antioch of Syria is at peace, as I have been told, thanks to your prayer, I too have become more cheerful in the freedom from care that comes from God — provided that through suffering I may attain to God, so that by your prayer I may be found a disciple at the resurrection.[7]
2 It is fitting, Polycarp — most blessed of God — to convene a council most worthy of God and to ordain someone whom you hold very dear and who is tireless, one who can be called a courier of God. Count him worthy to go to Syria and there glorify your tireless love, to the glory of God.
3 A Christian has no authority over himself, but devotes his time to God.
4 This is God’s work, and yours too, when you bring it to completion.
5 For I trust in the grace that you are ready for the kind of good work that befits God.
6 Knowing how earnestly committed you are to the truth, I’ve urged you with only a few lines.
8 Letters to the churches and greetings
1 Since I haven’t been able to write to all the churches, because I’m sailing suddenly from Troas to Neapolis, as the will commands, you write to the churches that lie ahead, as one who has the mind of God, so that they too may do the same — those who can sending men on foot, and the others sending letters by those you dispatch, that you may be glorified by an eternal work, since you are worthy of it. I greet everyone by name, and the wife of Epitropus together with her whole household and her children.[8]
2 I greet my beloved Attalus.
3 I greet the one who is to be counted worthy of going to Syria.
4 Grace will be with him always, and with Polycarp who sends him.
5 I pray that you may always be strong in our God Jesus Christ, in whom may you remain in the unity and episcopal oversight of God.
6 I greet Alce, a name dear to me.
7 Farewell in the Lord. en:Epistle to Polycarp