The Early Church Fathers on . . .
It is important for Catholics to know the writings of the Early Church Fathers, who were the great Christians of the early Church after the Apostolic era and who carried on the oral and written Traditions of the Catholic Church. In their writings, we find the rich trust that St. Paul spoke of in 2 Tim. 1:14, which is the deposit of faith.
In the coming weeks and months, we will discuss their writings as they pertain to a multitude of Catholic Doctrines. For example, the truth of the Catholic Church is proclaimed by the Fathers in the following writings:
St. Ignatius of Antioch - Follow your bishop, every one of you, as obediently as Jesus Christ followed the Father. Obey your clergy too as you would the Apostles; give your deacons the same reverence that you would to a command of God. Make sure that no step affecting the Church is ever taken by anyone without the bishop’s sanction. The sole Eucharist you should consider valid is one that is celebrated by the bishop himself, or by some person authorized by him. Where the bishop is to be seen, there let all his people be; just as, wherever Jesus Christ is present, there is the Catholic Church (Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D. 110]).
St. Irenaeus - For even creation reveals Him who formed it, and the very work made suggests Him who made it, and the world manifests Him who ordered it. The Universal [Catholic] Church, moreover, through the whole world, has received this tradition from the Apostles (Against Heresies 2:9 [A.D. 189]). True knowledge is the doctrine of the Apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the successions of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church which exists in every place, and has come even unto us, being guarded and preserved, without any forging of Scriptures, by a very complete system of doctrine, and neither addition nor curtailment … (ibid. 4:33 [A.D. 189]).
St. Augustine - “For my part, I should not believe the gospel except moved by the authority of the Catholic Church. (Against Ep. Manichaeus 5:6)
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