Feastday
28th June
Born
125
Died
202
The
writings of St. Irenaeus entitle him to a high place among the fathers of the
Church, for they not only laid down the foundations of Christian theology but,
by exposing and refuting the errors of the Gnostics, they delivered the
Catholic Faith from the real danger of the doctrines of those heretics. He was
probably born about the year 125. He served as a priest in the Church of Lyons
with the first Bishop St Pothinus an Oriental like himself. In 177 he was sent
to Rome – this explains why he was not called upon to share in the Martyrdom of
St. Pothinus during the terrible persecution in Lyons. When he returned from
Rome he occupied the vacant bishopric. The date of death of St Irenaeus is not
known, but it is believed to be in the year 202. The remains of St Irenaeus
were buried in a crypt under the altar of the then church of St. John which was
later known by the name of St. Irenaeus himself. The tomb or shrine was
destroyed by the Calvanists in 1562, and all trace of his relics seems to have
perished.
“He
shall sit in the Temple of God as if he were Christ, and leading astray those
who worship him For when he is come, and of his own accord concentrates in his
own person the apostasy, and accomplishes whatever he shall do according to his
own will and choice, sitting also in the Temple of God so that his dupes may
adore him as the Christ...” “By means
of the events which shall occur in the time of
Antichrist
it is shown that he, being an apostate and a robber, is anxious to be adored as
God; and that although a mere slave. he wishes to be proclaimed as a king. For he being endued with all the power of
the devil, shall come, not as a righteous king, not as a legitimate king obedient
to God but as an impious, unjust, and lawless one; as an iniquitous and
murderous apostate; as a robber, concentrating in himself a satanic apostasy,
and setting aside idols to persuade men that he himself is God
The
antichrist will decieve the Jews to such an extent that they will accept him as
the messiah and worship him
The
disciples of the apostles say (from oral tradition) that they (Elias and
Henoch) whose living bodies were taken
up from this world have been placed in an earthly paradise where they will
remain until the end of the world
At
the time of his reign antichrist will command that Jerusalem ne rebuilt in its
splendour and will make it a great and populous city, second to none in the
world and will order his palace to be built there