Irenaeus of Lyons

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Memorial
• 28 June (Western Church)
• 23 August (Eastern Church) like I care……

Profile

The biggest heresy in the early Church was called Gnosticism. Actually this belief predated Jesus Christ but when Christ made it big, the Gnostics tried to dovetail what they believed into Christian theology. The Gnostics believe in a different philosophy of creation and the nature of man…which is fine, for you…until you try to mess with the teachings of our Lord and Savior, for Jesus sake!

Irenaeus wrote against Gnosticism, basing his arguments on the works of Saint John the Apostle, you see the Gnostic rhetoric involves duality…light and dark, the spirit is good and the body is evil all that bushwah. In Genesis, God declares all his creation is “good.” Take a look for yourself. The only thing that is not good in creation, God says “It is not good the Man should be alone…”

Anyhoo, our Saint logically emphasized that the college of bishops can be traced all the way back to the Apostles and none of them held this heretical belief. He placed great importance in this succession and placed a great emphasis on the Bishop of Rome; the successor of Saint Peter.

Irenaeus wrote a series of commentaries called Against Heresies (Aversus Heresus) which speak directly to a lot of these heretical beliefs, not just Gnosticism. The work is available online if you are interested. Our Saint is considered the first great Western ecclesiastical writer and theologian; he suggested the beginnings of cannon of Christian Scripture and emphasized the unity of the Hebrew Scripture and New Testaments. This means that there was the beginning of discussion of a “Bible” only in the year 200 or so with our Saint of today. The Biblical canon was really not rudimentarily formed until the late 4th century. If the flatulent Martin Luther was correct and we should base our religion only on scripture (Sola Scriptura) I rhetorically ask what did these early Christians do since there was no defined scripture yet?

Well, Irenaeus also emphasized the importance and the value of Sacred Tradition (with a Capital “T”) as an integral part of the Deposit of Faith left by the Apostles. Knowing scripture came from the Church the brilliant Saint Augustine of Hippo said, “I Would Not Believe the Gospel without the Authority of Rome.” Come home folk…..come home……

Irenaeus also began to expound on the understanding of Christ’s simultaneous human and divine nature.

He is considered a Father of the Church. In 2023 Pope Francis declared him the 37th Doctor of the Church. It is debatable but Church historians say he was martyred in the year 202. Either way he was buried in Lyons France. Much of the thought that shaped Christian belief came from this man, but the site of this brilliant early Christian thinker’s burial and his relics were destroyed by Calvinists in 1562, one wonders why? Allegedly his head survived and is in Saint John’s church in Lyons.

Born
• c.130 in Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey)

Died
• maybe martyred in 202 in Gaul