Saint Irenaeus of Lyons Resource Page

St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Feast Day - August 23)

 

Verses

Irenaeus speedily flees the earth by the sword,
With eros going towards the heavens he longs for.

 

Holy Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (+ 202)

 

Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (St. Justin Popovich)

 

The Life and Works of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

August: Day 23: Teaching 2: Holy Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons
 

Recapitulation According to Saint Irenaeus of Lyon

 

The Analogy of Eve and the Theotokos (St. Irenaeus of Lyons) 

 

St. Irenaeus of Lyons on St. Polycarp of Smyrna

 

 

Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (St. Justin Popovich)

 

By St. Justin Popovich

 

Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, is one of the most famous fathers and teachers of the Church. He lived and practiced asceticism in the second century, devoting his whole life to the struggle with Gnosticism [1]. His importance for the Christian Church of the second century can be compared with the importance of Saint Athanasius the Great [2] for the Christian Church of the fourth century. Both of them appear in their life and work primarily as protectors of pure, unaltered Church teachings against the false heretical teachings of their time: Saint Irenaeus - against Gnosticism, Saint Athanasius - against Arianism. [3]

Saint Irenaeus was born in the city of Smyrna, in Asia Minor; from an early age he dedicated himself to the thorough study of Hellenic wisdom, and became an excellent connoisseur of Greek poetry, philosophy and other Hellenic sciences. However, worldly knowledge did not impress young Irenaeus. Hearing about spiritual wisdom, Christian wisdom, and starting to get acquainted with it, he was delighted with it and wanted to adopt it wholeheartedly, because he felt its salutary and immeasurable importance.

The Life and Works of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (Fr. George Florovsky)

By Fr. George Florovsky

 

St Irenaeus of Lyons was probably born in Asia Minor between 125 and 145, perhaps in Smyrna — in his letter to the Roman presbyter Florinus St. Irenaeus tells us that in his early youth he had listened to the sermons of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna: "When I was still a boy, I knew you, Florinus, in lower Asia, in Polycarp’s house… I remember the events of those days more clearly than those, which happened recently… so that I can speak even of the place in which the blessed Polycarp sat and disputed, how he came in and went out, the character of his life, the appearance of his body, the discourses, which he made to the people, how he reported his relationship with John and with the others who had seen the Lord, how he remembered their words, and what were the things concerning the Lord, which he had heard from them, and about their miracles, and about their teachings, and how Polycarp had received them from the eye-witnesses of the Logos of Life, and reported all things in agreement with the Scriptures. I listened eagerly even then to these things through the mercy of God, which was given me, and made notes of them, not on paper, but in my heart, and ever by the grace of God do I truly ruminate on them." This text is preserved by Eusebius in his Εκκλησιαστική ιστορία 5, 20. But the fact that St. Irenaeus was in Smyrna as a boy does not necessitate that he was born there.

 

Recapitulation According to Saint Irenaeus of Lyon

 By Archimandrite Michael Stathakis

The work of the Asia Minor born St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, could be considered as an intersection but also as a foundation in patristic and theological thought. St. Irenaeus left as a legacy to the Church and to the generations after him, theological truths, which formed the foundation on which all the later theology of the Fathers and the Ecumenical Synods was based.

An in-depth scholar of Holy Scripture and Tradition, Irenaeus is the first to realize the historical continuity and the inextricable link between the real events of the Old and New Testaments. In his attempt to combat Gnosticism and its influence on Christianity, he interprets the narrated events of the Scriptures realistically and teleologically as a whole, because he is the first to realize their salvific significance. It is worth noting that until then the role of Christ in the salvation of man was considered, even by Christian apologists, to improve, aid and complement the general human weakness.

Holy Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (+ 202)

St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Feast Day - August 23)

Verses

Irenaeus speedily flees the earth by the sword,
With eros going towards the heavens he longs for.

Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was born in the year 130 in the city of Smyrna of Asia Minor. He received there the finest education, studying poetics, philosophy, rhetoric, and the rest of the classical sciences considered necessary for a young man of the world.

The Analogy of Eve and the Theotokos (St. Irenaeus of Lyons)

By St. Irenaeus of Lyons

Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter 22)

1. Those, therefore, who allege that [our Lord Jesus] took nothing from the Virgin do greatly err, since, in order that they may cast away the inheritance of the flesh, they also reject the analogy [between Him and Adam]. For if the one who sprang from the earth had indeed formation and substance from both the hand and workmanship of God, but the other not from the hand and workmanship of God, then He who was made after the image and likeness of the former did not, in that case, preserve the analogy of man, and He must seem an inconsistent piece of work, not having wherewith He may show His wisdom. But this is to say, that He also appeared putatively as man when He was not man, and that He was made man while taking nothing from man. For if He did not receive the substance of flesh from a human being, He neither was made man nor the Son of man; and if He was not made what we were, He did no great thing in what He suffered and endured. But every one will allow that we are [composed of] a body taken from the earth, and a soul receiving spirit from God. This, therefore, the Word of God was made, recapitulating in Himself His own handiwork; and on this account does He confess Himself the Son of man, and blesses "the meek, because they shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5). The Apostle Paul, moreover, in the Epistle to the Galatians, declares plainly, "God sent His Son, made of a woman" (Gal. 4:4). And again, in that to the Romans, he says, "Concerning His Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestinated as the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 1:3-4).