(This is an extract from my forthcoming book.)

Ignatius was the second bishop of Antioch early in the Second Century. Eusebius of Caesarea, whose History of the Church is the primary historical source up to 324, reports that Ignatius’s arrest and transport to Rome for martyrdom in the Roman arena occurred during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (98–117). Ignatius died in the arena around the age of 70 circa 110 and was torn apart by lions. While enroute to Rome, he remarkably wrote to the church at Rome repeatedly imploring them not to stop his impending execution. He writes,

“I write to the churches, and signify to them all, that I am willing to die for God, unless you hinder me. I beseech you that you show not an unseasonable good will towards me. Suffer me to be food to the wild beasts, by whom I shall attain unto God. For I am the wheat of God, and I shall be ground by the teeth of the wild-beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather encourage the beasts, that they may became my sepulchre, and may let live nothing of my body; that being dead I may not be troublesome to any.”¹

Ignatius’s words provide astonishing insight into his perspective on death. Clearly, he considered death in the arena by wild beasts to be “dying well.”

¹ Ignatius of Antioch, Epistles of St. Ignatius: Seven Letters: Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrnaeans & Polycarp (translator: William Wake), (e-artnow), 2022, 32-33, Kindle