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The saints

St. Irenaeus

A disciple of Polycarp who took on the Gnostics and showed what the apostles really taught.

Feast: 28 June · about 130 to about 202 · The early Church · Smyrna and Lyons, Gaul

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Engraving of St. Irenaeus, bearded, with a halo, looking down.

Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

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Lyons, Gaul, the 2nd century

Irenaeus grew up in Smyrna listening to Polycarp, who had known the apostle John.1

He went to Gaul as a priest and became bishop of Lyons after a terrible persecution.1

The Gnostics were claiming secret teachings, and Irenaeus wrote a great book against them.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church honors him as a Doctor of the Church, named “Doctor of Unity” by Pope Francis.

01St. Irenaeus

Against the heresies

He pointed to the bishops who succeeded the apostles, especially in Rome, as the sure path to what Jesus taught.1

He wrote that the glory of God is the human person fully alive.1

Live it this week

Learn your faith’s family tree

Irenaeus traced the Church’s teaching back through the bishops to the apostles. Look up who ordained your bishop, and who ordained him, as far back as you can go.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Irenaeus”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.