We begin the month of February on this First Saturday Devotion and the Eve of the Purification tomorrow, by celebrating a Holy Bishop who willingly gave his life for Christ at the hands of the voracious lions, aware of Saint Peter's words in his First Epistle, chapter five, verse 8: "Be sober and watch: because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour."
The Holy Bishop and Martyr Saint Ignatius of Antioch, like Saint Polycarp, was a disciple of Saint John the Apostle . The Tradition says as well that - when Saint Ignatius was a little child - he was held on the knee of Our Lord when the Savior spoke the words "Suffer the little children to come unto Me." During the persecution of Trajan he was condemned to death and sent in chains to Rome. While on the way he wrote letters to various churches which are precious documents for our Faith. He rejoiced when he heard the roaring of the lions set loose to devour him, exclaiming: "I am the wheat of Christ: may I be ground by the fangs of wild beasts and become bread agreeable to my Lord!" He died a noble martyr in Rome on October 17 around 107 A.D. He is commemorated every day in the prayer which precedes the Pater Noster, known as the "Great Intercession" - the Nobis quoque peccatoribus.
Oremus/ Let us pray :
Look upon our weakness, O Almighty God: and because we are weighed down beneath the burden of our own deeds, let the glorious intercession of blessed Ignatius, Thy Martyr and Bishop, shield us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
