June 28
Saints of the Day
 

Saint Ireneus of Lyons, 130-202, Doctor of the Church, Bishop and Martyr
The champion against Gnosticism as Athanasius was against Arianism and Cyril was against Nestorianism. Considered the first great Western ecclesiastical writer

    Disciple of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna. Priest in 177. Bishop of Lyons.
    Worked and wrote against Gnosticism, basing his arguments on the works of Saint John, whose Gospel is often cited by Gnostics.
    Considered the first great Western ecclesiastical writer, he emphasized the unity of the Old and New Testaments, and of Christ's simultaneous human and divine nature.

    As bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who took their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. After thoroughly investigating the various Gnostic sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he contrasted with the teaching of the apostles and the text of Holy Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and translated into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics.

    He suffered martyrdom in Lyons, with many others, in the year 202, under the Emperor Septimus Severus, after eighty years spent in the service of the Lord. The imperial decrees renewing the persecutions arrived at Lyons at the time of the celebration of Severus’ tenth year of reign; the pagans found amid the celebrations an opportunity to take vengeance on the Christians, who refused to participate in the debaucheries which accompanied these feastings. Assassins armed with daggers, stones and knives filled the city with blood, and thousands of Christians won, with their bishop, the crown they had always admired as the greatest glory God could grant His servants.