Today is the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Antioch. I went looking for images that included him and found a picture of Saint Ignatius Loyola first, because I had been careless in my prompt. Here it is. https://www.nortonsimon.org/art/viewer/M.1975.03.P On the Norton Simon website it’s not listed in the public domain, but it is very beautiful and actually well-known. I found the picture also on WIkimedia Commons. Here is a detail from the vestment that Saint Ignatius of Loyola is wearing.
The Minnesota website, Ecclesiastical Sewing, does some embroidery that echoes the central motif here. Four hundred years later… https://www.ecclesiasticalsewing.com/collections/vestments
Okay, that was a lovely rabbit hole. This website https://www.christianiconography.info/ignatiusAntioch.html has images of the correct Saint Ignatius but again I can’t tell what the status of the images is so I’m not using them. But go look.
The National Gallery of Art in DC has this.
Saint Ignatius Leaving Antioch. 1773. Johann Baptist Enderle German artist.
The Catholic Encyclopedia has a great article on Saint Ignatius of Antioch. He was also called Theophorus which means, one who carries God. Oh. Like Christophorus — one who carries Christ. Very cool. Both Saint Ignatius and Saint Polycarp are thought to have sat at the feet of Saint John the Apostle, and New Advent says that Saint Peter recommended Saint Ignatius as bishop of Antioch after Bishop Evodius. Here’s an excerpt, explaining how he achieved martyrdom.
… in the ninth year of his reign, [Emperor] Trajan, flushed with victory over the Scythians and Dacians, sought to perfect the universality of his dominion by a species of religious conquest. He decreed, therefore, that the Christians should unite with their pagan neighbors in the worship of the gods. A general persecution was threatened, and death was named as the penalty for all who refused to offer the prescribed sacrifice. … Ignatius availed himself of all the means within his reach to thwart the purpose of the emperor. … He was soon arrested and led before Trajan, who was then sojourning in Antioch. Accused by the emperor himself of violating the imperial edict, and of inciting others to like transgressions, Ignatius valiantly bore witness to the faith of Christ. … Incapable of appreciating the motives that animated him, the emperor ordered him to be put in chains and taken to Rome, there to become the food of wild beasts and a spectacle for the people.
I had vaguely thought in the past that some other official of the empire had sent Ignatius to Rome, because how would the emperor, himself, have gotten involved. Now I know. Also, the journey, as described in the article was long and terrible. On the one hand Ignatius preached to the local Christian community wherever he went. On the other hand, he was chained up at night with ten hungry leopards.
Saint Ignatius! Pray for us!
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