One of my favorite saints is honored in the church today. I loved reading "Against Heresies" long before I became a Catholic. In fact reading Irenaeus and other very early Christian writers is what convinced me the Church has ALWAYS been Catholic. Irenaeus was taught by Polycarp, who was taught by the Apostle John, so he is very close to the first generation of Christians.
From Universalis today:
Irenaeus was born in Smyrna, in Asia Minor (now Izmir in Turkey) and emigrated to Lyons, in France, where he eventually became the bishop. It is not known for certain whether he was martyred or died a natural death.
Whenever we take up a Bible we touch Irenaeus's work, for he played a decisive role in fixing the canon of the New Testament. It is easy for us, now, to think of Scripture – and the New Testament in particular – as the basis of the Church, and harder to remember that it was the Church that had to decide, early on, what was scriptural and what was not.
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