Saint Irenaeus, Bishop, Martyr & Doctor
S. Irenaei Episcopi et Martyris
Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons and a Father of the early Church, defended the apostolic faith against the errors of his day, and is honoured as a martyr and a Doctor of the Church.
Saint Irenaeus was born about the year 130, in Asia Minor, and was formed in the faith in a singularly precious way: in his youth he heard the preaching of Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who had himself been a disciple of Saint John the Apostle. Thus Irenaeus stood close to the very fountainhead of the Gospel, and he never forgot the link that bound him, through Polycarp, to the company of those who had seen the Lord.
Bishop and teacher of the apostolic faith
In the course of his life Saint Irenaeus came to Gaul, and there he laboured as a priest and afterward as Bishop of Lyons, governing that Church and spreading the faith among a people not his own. He lived in an age when various errors, gathered under the name of Gnosticism, sought to corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel with strange and secret doctrines. Against these Irenaeus wrote his great work commonly known as Against Heresies, in which he set forth the faith handed down from the Apostles and showed that the truth of Christ is to be found, not in hidden traditions, but in the open and public teaching of the Churches founded by the Apostles.
He taught with particular clarity the unity of God the Creator and Redeemer, the reality of the Incarnation, and the handing-on of the apostolic faith through the lawful succession of bishops. So firmly did he labour for peace and for sound doctrine that the collect of his feast praises God for granting him both to overcome heresies by the truth of his teaching and happily to confirm the peace of the Church.
Martyr and Doctor
The ancient tradition of the Church honours Saint Irenaeus as a martyr, who sealed his witness with his blood about the year 200, in a persecution at Lyons. His writings remained a treasure of the Church, a witness from the second century to the faith that the Church has always held. For the depth and soundness of his teaching he is venerated as a Doctor of the Church.
His feast, kept on the third of July, honours a shepherd who stood near the beginnings of the Church’s life, who guarded the deposit of faith with vigilance and charity, and whose very name — Irenaeus, the man of peace — befitted one who laboured so earnestly for the peace and unity of Christ’s flock.
The Collect
O God, who didst grant unto blessed Irenaeus, thy Martyr and Bishop, both to overcome heresies by the truth of his teaching and happily to confirm the peace of the Church: grant, we beseech thee, unto thy people constancy in thy holy religion, and bestow thy peace upon our times.
Deus, qui beáto Irenæo Mártyri tuo atque Pontífici tribuísti, ut et veritáte doctrínæ expugnáret hæreses, et pacem Ecclésiæ felíciter confirmáret: da, quæsumus, plebi tuæ in sancta religióne constántiam; et pacem tuam nostris concéde tempóribus.
Patronage
He is venerated as a Father and Doctor of the early Church and is honoured especially at Lyons in France, where he was bishop.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar his memorial is observed on 28 June; in 2022 he was declared a Doctor of the Church under the title “Doctor of Unity.”
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Irenaeus?
In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 3 July as a Third Class feast. In the modern calendar his memorial is observed on 28 June.
Who was Saint Irenaeus?
He was a second-century Bishop of Lyons in Gaul and a Father of the Church, who in his youth had heard Saint Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John. He defended the apostolic faith against the errors of Gnosticism, chiefly in his work Against Heresies, and is venerated as a martyr and a Doctor of the Church.
Why is Saint Irenaeus important?
Standing close to the age of the Apostles, he bore early and clear witness to the faith handed down in the Church through the succession of bishops, against those who sought to corrupt it with hidden doctrines. His writings remain a precious testimony to what the Church believed in the second century.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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