28th Jun - S IRENAEUS (130-202)

 Irenaeus was a Greek who had the great privilege of being taught by St. Polycarp, who had been a disciple of St. John the Apostle. Irenaeus once told a friend: "I listened to 

    St. Polycarp's instructions very carefully. I wrote down his actions and his words, not on paper, but on my heart." After he became a Priest, Irenaeus was sent to the French city 

    of Lyons. It was in this city that the Bishop, St. Pothinius, was martyred along with a great many other saints. Irenaeus was not martyred at that time because he was asked by his 

    brother priests to take an important message from them to the Pope in Rome. In that letter, they spoke of Irenaeus as a man full of zeal for the faith. When Irenaeus returned to be 

    the Bishop of Lyons, the persecution was over. But there was another danger: a heresy called Gnosticism. This false religion attracted some people by its promise to teach them secret 

    mysteries. Irenaeus studied all its teachings and then in five books showed how wrong they were. He wrote with politeness, because he wanted to win people to Jesus. Before too long, 

    the whole heresy began to die out.





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