“God did not tell us to follow Him because he needed our help, but because He knew that loving Him would make us whole.”

Irenaeus was a Greek, born around 130 AD in Smyrna in Asia Minor, in what is now known as Izmir, Turkey. Unlike many of his contemporaries in that area, he was raised a Christian rather than converting as an adult.

During the persecution of Christians by Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor, he was a priest of the Church of Lyon. As many clergy were suffering and becoming martyrs, he became the 2nd bishop of Lyon during a trip to Rome. Peace followed the persecution and upon his return to Lyon, Irenaeus split his duties between being a pastor and a missionary but his writings and preaching were primarily focused against Gnosticism heresy.

Seeing the ravages it was making among the Christians of his diocese, he was inspired to undertake the task of exposing its errors. He produced a treatise in 5 books in which he sets forth fully the inner doctrines of the various sects and afterwards, contrasts them and emphasizes the teachings of the Apostles and the text of the Holy Scripture.

One of his last actions that took place in 190, was to influence Pope Victor I to not excommunicate the Christian communities of Asia Minor.

His writings entitle him to a high place among the fathers of the Church. They not only laid the foundations of the Christian Theology, but by exposing and refuting the errors of the Gnostics, they delivered the Catholic Faith from the real danger of the doctrines of those heresies. They were widely circulated and succeeded in dealing a death-blow to Gnosticism.

“One should not seek among others the truth that can be easily gotten from the Church. For in her, as in a rich treasury, the apostles have placed all that pertains to truth, so that everyone can drink this beverage of life. She is the door of life.”

He is the patron saint of Apologists and Catechists.

His feast day is June 28.

For God’s Glory.