Irenaeus of Lyons

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130–200), bishop. Of Eastern origin, perhaps from Smyrna whose bishop Polycarp, disciple of John the Apostle, he had known as a boy, Irenaeus studied at Rome and then became a priest of Lyons, at the invitation of its first bishop Pothinus. This city was a flourishing trade-centre, which soon became the most important of its kind in the West, and the principal bishopric of Gaul. During a sudden persecution, which caused the imprisonment of many of its members, the church of Lyons sent Irenaeus to Rome with a letter for the pope. This urged leniency towards the Montanists in Phrygia, a sect of enthusiasts with whom Irenaeus had little sympathy; but he acted, as his name implies, for peace and unity. On his return c.178 he was appointed bishop, as Pothinus had been killed in the persecution. He acted as peacemaker again in 190. Pope Victor III had excommunicated the Quartodecimans of Asia Minor, who celebrated Easter on the day of the Jewish Passover instead of on the following Sunday with all other Christians. As a result of Irenaeus' intervention, good relations were restored; some centuries later they conformed on their own accord.

Irenaeus was also an important theologian, whose significance has been fully realized only in the 20th century. His principal works, the Adversus Haereses and the Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching (discovered in 1904) effectively refuted Gnosticism. His principal points were a clear reassertion of Christian monotheism, emphasizing the identity of the God of the Old Testament with that of the New, and the unity of the Father and the Son in the work of Revelation and Redemption. His special contribution to the theology of the Incarnation consists in his theory of the ‘recapitulation’ of human nature in Christ. He also strongly emphasized the importance of Tradition, realized in the apostolic succession of the episcopate and in the formation of the Canon of Scripture, in which the authority of the Four Gospels, which complete each other, is supreme.

Irenaeus died at Lyons and was buried in the crypt of the church of St. John (now Saint-Irenée), where his shrine remained until it was destroyed by Calvinists in 1562. Although he is usually venerated as a martyr, the evidence for his martyrdom is late and unsatisfactory. Feast: in the East, 23 August; in the West, 28 June.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• AA.SS. Iun. V (1709), 335–49 with C.M.H., pp. 341–2; A.C.M., pp. 294–301; J. Lawson, The Biblical Theology of St. Irenaeus (1948); A. Benoit, Saint Irénée: Introduction à l'Étude de sa théologie (1960); works ed. A. Stieren (1848–53) and W. W. Harvey (1857); the Demonstration ed. J. A. Robinson (1920) with Eng. tr.; French tr. by F. M. Sagnard and A. Rousseau in S.C. (1952–69)