St. Irenaeus - Patron of Gaul - June 28th
Irenaeus was a Greek who was born less than a hundred years after Our Lord died. He had the great privilege of being taught by St. Polycrap, who had been a disciple of St. John the Apostle. Irenaeus once told a friend: “I listened to St. Polycrap’s instructions very carefully, and I wrote down his actions and his words-not on paper, but on my heart.”
After he became a priest, Irenaeus was sent to the French city of Lyons. It was in this city that the Bishop, St. Pothinus, was martyred with a great many other Saints. Irenaeus missed being martyred because he was asked by his brother priests to take an important message from them to the Pope in Rome. In that letter they spoke of Irenaeus as a man full of zeal for the Faith.
When Irenaeus returned to be the Bishop of Lyons, the persecution was over. But there was another danger: a heresy called Gnosticism. The false religion attracted some people by its promise to teach them secret mysteries. Irenaeus studied all its teachings and then in five books showed how wrong they were. He wrote with politeness, because he wanted to win people for Jesus, but sometimes his words were strong, such as when he said: “As soon as a man has been won over by the Gnostics, he becomes puffed up with conceit, and self-importance, and with majestic air of a cock, he goes strutting about.” St. Irenaeus’ books were read by so many people that before too long, the whole heresy began to die out.
St. Irenaeus always remembered what he had been taught by St. Polycrap. We, too, should try to forget whatever evil impressed us, and think, instead, about the good things we have heard or read. If we think well, we will live well.