We have already heard of St. Irenaeus. He had traveled to Rome, with St. Polycarp, to discuss the date of Easter with the pope. This has been a debate between the western Church and the eastern Church. Both have good reasons for celebrating Easter at different dates.
The problem was resolved with a compromise– the western Church would continue their tradition of celebrating Easter always on a Sunday, and the eastern Church would continue their tradition of celebrating it on the date according to their calendar.
Irenaeus remained in Rome, and Poloycarp returned to the east. Irenaeus was well educated by Poycarp– who was also a disciple of St. John the Apostle, and Irenaeus debated Gnostics. Later he became bishop of Lyons, in France.
While there, he wrote one of the most important apologetic works of the ancient Church.
It is called “Against Heresy “ 175-185 AD.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/irenaeus.html
In this work, Irenaeus identifies and describes several schools of Gnosticism, as well as other heresies, and contrasts their beliefs with his orthodox Christianity as taught to him by St. John the Apostle through Polycarp.
Not only is the treatise historically important for the ancient beliefs of the first Christians but quotes from the canonical gospel texts and some of the Pauline epistles. Irenaeus cites from most of the New Testament canon, as well as the noncanonical works of 1 Clement and The Shepherd of Hermas; although he makes no references to Philemon, 2 Peter, 3 John or Jude – four of the shortest epistles, he does show how the canon of scripture was already well developed.
It was debated when forming the canon of scripture that 1 Clement and The Shepherd of Hermas should be in the new testament and that the Book of Revelations should not be included. Although this was a minority position, it shows how respected some non inspired texts were.
Only fragments of, Against Heresy, originally in ancient Greek remain today, but there are many complete copies in Latin-- the dates of which remain unknown (third or fifth century), still survive. Books IV and V exist in their entirety in a literal version in Armenian. A good summary of each chapter can be found [here]
What is significant for Catholics, is that St. Irenaeus appealed not to St. John or Polycarp for the orthodox faith but to Rome, the seat of Peter. He also gives us a list of popes from St. Peter to his present day.
Against Heresy, Book 3, Ch. 3 verse 2:
“[T]he very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre- eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere.”
Against Heresy is really well written, imho, in that it is pretty easy to read for such an ancient document. It is full of details, many have been forgotten. For example, St. Mathew had a Gospel written in Hebrew. If someone could find a copy of that, it would be such a significant discovery, it is hard to quantify.
As said above, he gives a list of the popes. Although some say he didn’t include St. Peter in his list, is just wrong. St. Peter was the founder of the Church at Rome, as quoted above, he simply continues from St. Peter (32-670 AD) the first pope, to:
2. St. Linus (67-76 AD)
3. St. Anacletus (Cletus) (76-88 AD)
4. St. Clement I (88-97 AD)
5. St. Evaristus (97-105 AD)
6. St. Alexander I (105-115 AD)
7. St. Sixtus I (115-125 AD) Also called Xystus I
8. St. Telesphorus (125-136 AD)
9. St. Hyginus (136-140 AD)
10. St. Pius I (140-155 AD)
11. St. Anicetus (155-166 AD)
12. St. Soter (166-175 AD)
13. St. Eleutherius (175-189 AD)
By his own admission, Irenaeus possessed little rhetorical skills, although I think he is being a little humble, and the work as a whole, many say, is somewhat disorganized and repetitive. But I disagree, he sets out the teachings of the Church simply, and clearly, which more than adequately archives the results he wanted– the refutation of Gnosticism.
We know very little else about St. Irenaeus’ personal life. It is said he was eventually martyred. This is possible, but not reliably well known.
He was declared recently as a Doctor of the Church, by Pope Francis on January 21, 2021.
What is a Doctor of the Church? In this sense “doctor” retains the ancient meaning of “teacher”.
The catholic dictionary defines is thus:
DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
A title given since the Middle Ages to certain saints whose writing or preaching is outstanding for guiding the faithful in all periods of the Church's history. Originally the Western Fathers of the Church, Gregory the Great, Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome, were considered the great doctors of the Church. but the Church has officially added many more names to the original four, including Sts. Catherine of Siena (1347-80) and Theresa of Avila (1515-82 [ and now St. Irenaeous]
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=33180
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