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To the Romans
St Ignatius of Antioch, Lake, Loeb 1912
Chapter 4
His desire to suffer
I am writing to all the Churches, and I give injunctions to all men, that I am dying willingly for God’s sake, if you do not hinder it. I beseech you, be not “an unseasonable kindness ”1 to me. Suffer me to be eaten by the beasts, through whom I can attain to God. I am God’s wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of Christ.
Rather entice the wild beasts that they may become my tomb, and leave no trace of my body, that when I fall asleep I be not burdensome to any. Then shall I be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not even see my body. Beseech Christ on my behalf, that I may be found a sacrifice through these instruments.2
I do not order you as did Peter and Paul; they were Apostles, 1 am a convict; they were free, I am even until now a slave. But if I suffer I shall be Jesus Christ’s freedman, and in him I shall rise free. Now I am learning in my bonds to give up all desires.
Notes
- Apparently a partial quotation from the proverb preserved by Zenobius ἄκαιρος εὔνοι’ οὐδὲν ἔχθρας διαφέρει “an unseasonable kindness is nothing different from hostility.”
- I.e. the wild beasts.