ST. IRENAEUS

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ST. IRENAEUS

• By
• Danielle Walz
• and
• Kristen Mutter

2
Birth and Death

• He was born in 130 A.D.
• The date of death of St. Irenaeus is not known,
  but it is believed to be in the year 202. The
  bodily remains of St. Irenaeus were buried in a
  crypt under the altar of what was then called the
  church of St. John, but was later known by the
  name of St. Irenaeus himself. This tomb or shrine
  was destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562, and all
  trace of his relics seems to have perished.

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His hometown

• He was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor

4
His Life

• Irenaeus was a priest at the church of Lyons.

5
His Life

• During ther persection of Marcus Aurelius the
  Roman Empirer from 161 180 Irenaeus was a
  presbyter of the church of Lyon. The clergy of
  the city, many of whom were suffering
  inprisionment for the faith, sent him to Rome
  with a letter to Pope Eleuterus concerning the
  Heresy Montanism, and that occasion born emphatic
  testimony to his merits. Returning to Gaul,
  Irenaeus succeded martyr St. Pothinus and became
  the second Bishop of Lyon.

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St. Irenaeus

• He is recognized as a saint by both the Eastern
  Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, and his
  writings were formative in the early development
  of Christian theology. His most famous work is
  Against Heresies, a lengthy description of
  Gnosticism.

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St. Irenaeus Writings

• The writings of St. Irenaeus entitle him to a
  high place among the fathers of the Church, for
  they not only laid the foundations of Christian
  theology by exposing and refuting the errors of
  the Gnostics, they delivered the Catholic Faith
  from the real danger of the doctrines of those
  heretics.

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Irenaeus Writings

• Irenaeus wrote a number of books, but the most
  important one that survived is the five-volume On
  the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called
  Knowledge , normally referred to as Adversus
  Haereses ,Against Heresies,.

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Irenaeus Writings

• Only fragments in its original Greek exist, but a
  complete copy exists in a wooden Latin
  translation, made shortly after its publication
  in Greek, and Books IV and V are present in a
  literal Armenian translation.

10
..Continued

• The great work of Irenaeus is unfortunately no
  longer existent in the original. It has come down
  to us only in an ancient Latin version, with the
  exception of the greater part of the first book,
  which has been preserved in the original Greek,
  through means of copious quotations made by
  Hippolytus and Epiphanius.

11
.. Continued

• The text, both Latin and Greek, is often most
  uncertain. Only three manuscripts of the work
  Against Heresies are at present known to exist.
  Others, however, were used in the earliest
  printed editions put forth by Erasmus. And as
  these codices were more ancient than any now
  available, it is greatly to be regretted that
  they have disappeared.

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Thoughts of Irenaeus

• Irenaeus had clearly taken great pains to
  understand the various heretical systems which he
  describes. His mode of exposing and refuting
  these is generally very effective. It is plain
  that he possessed a good share of learning, and
  that he had a firm grasp of the doctrines of
  Scripture. He does not frequently indulge in a
  kind of sarcastic humor, while inveighing against
  the folly and impiety of the heretics.

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Settling Disputes

• Thirteen or fourteen years after his mission to
  Rome, Irenaeus attempted mediation between
  another Pope and a body of Christians in Asia
  Minor called the Quartodecimans, who refused to
  fix the day of Easter by the method commonly used
  by Christians.

14
Continued

• Pope Victor had excommunicated them, and Irenaeus
  pleaded with him in a beautiful letter to raise
  the ban, pointing out that these Asiatics were
  only following their Apostolic tradition, and
  that the difference of opinion on this minor
  point had not prevented St. Polycarp and many
  others from staying in communion. At the end of
  the fourth century Jerome wrote that many Eastern
  bishops still adhered to the ancient Jewish
  calendar.

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Scripture

• Irenaeus pointed to Scripture as a proof of
  orthodox Christianity against heresies,
  classifying as Scripture not only the Old
  Testament but most of the books now known as the
  New Testament, while excluding many works,
  included a large number by Gnostics, that
  flourished in the second century and claimed
  scriptural authority.

16
..Continued

• Before Irenaeus, Christians differed as to which
  gospel they preferred. The Christians of Asia
  Minor preferred the Gospel of John. The Gospel of
  Matthew was the most popular overall. Irenaeus
  asserted that all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark,
  Luke, and John, were canonical scripture.Thus
  Irenaeus provides our earliest witness to the
  assertion of the four canonical Gospels, possibly
  in reaction to Marcion's edited version of the
  Gospel of Luke, which Marcion asserted was the
  one and only true gospel.

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The Gospels

• St Irenaeus is also our earliest attestation that
  the Gospel of John was written by John the
  apostle, and that the Gospel of Luke was written
  by Luke, the companion of Paul. All four gospels
  themselves are anonymous.

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• In his writing against the Gnostics, who claimed
  to possess a secret oral tradition from Jesus
  himself, Irenaeus maintained that the bishops in
  different cities are known as far back as the
  Apostles and none of them was a Gnostic and that
  the bishops provided the only safe guide to the
  interpretation of Scripture.

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• He emphasized the unique position of authority of
  the bishop of Rome, though in an obscure passage.

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Work Cited

• "Irenaeus, Saint." Encyclopædia Britannica
  (Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service, 2004).
  http//www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId9042757
  
• This article incorporates some public domain text
  from "Irenaeus." Wikipedia The Free
  Encyclopedia, 2004. http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I
  renaeus