Case file · Witness · Prove All Things

The Oldest Surviving Use of 'Catholic Church'

“But prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Douay-Rheims

The case

Around the year one hundred seven, a bishop was being marched to Rome to be thrown to the wild beasts. Ten soldiers guarded him. He called them ten leopards. His name was Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch. Tradition says he learned the faith from the Apostle John.

The evidence

Every quotation below is printed in the words of the edition named under it. Nothing is paraphrased.

“…being bound to ten leopards, I mean a band of soldiers…”

Ignatius, To the Romans 5, shorter (authentic) recension (ANF vol. 1, Roberts-Donaldson) — read it at the source

“Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”

To the Smyrnaeans 8, shorter (authentic) recension (ANF vol. 1, Roberts-Donaldson) — read it at the source

“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ…”

To the Smyrnaeans 7, shorter (authentic) recension (ANF vol. 1, Roberts-Donaldson) — read it at the source

What’s established, and what isn’t

What the sources support, claim by claim — each one checked against the sources listed at the foot of this page:

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, martyred in Rome under Trajan on the traditional dating, c. 107-110 (some modern scholars date the martyrdom later)
Guarded by ten soldiers he called leopards (Romans 5)
Tradition: a disciple/hearer of John the Apostle
Seven authentic letters survive
Smyrnaeans 8 is the earliest surviving use of 'Catholic Church'
Smyrnaeans 7 on those who abstain from the Eucharist

Where the record stops short:

The words 'Catholic Church' appear in writing here first, as far as anything that survives. What Ignatius meant by the Greek 'katholike' - universal, or the one and only Church - is disputed; the claim on this page is only that the two words appear here first.
The letter is dated about AD 110. The traditional date of the martyrdom is 107 and some modern scholars put it as late as about 140.
That he was eaten by lions comes from later tradition. Ignatius himself writes of wild beasts.

For your men’s group

A man on his way to be killed wrote letters to churches instead of to his family. What does that tell you about what he thought was at stake?
Ignatius ties the Church to the bishop and the Eucharist in the same breath. Why those two together?
If the oldest surviving use of our own name is a letter written under guard, what does that say about what the name costs?

Every source

Found an error? [email protected] — errata corrected the day they’re found.

Drafted with AI assistance, founder-directed, and checked against the sources linked here. Our editorial standards.

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