Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius uses "the catholic Church" in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The supposed churchwide proclamation was a prisoner's letter, sent from Troas to one congregation in Smyrna.
A letter written on the way to Rome
The year 109 cannot be independently established; the conventional date is around 107–110, or more broadly the second decade of the second century.
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, wrote from Troas to the Christian community at Smyrna while travelling as a prisoner toward Rome. The letter warned against Docetists, thanked the Smyrnaeans for their hospitality and defended the bishop's authority.
Smyrnaeans 8.2
In that passage Ignatius wrote that where Jesus Christ is present, there is the katholike ekklesia — the whole, or universal, Church. It is the earliest surviving occurrence of the phrase in Christian literature.
The same paragraph restricts the Eucharist, baptism and the love-feast to the bishop or to someone he authorizes.
What the phrase does not mean
"Catholic" here describes scope — whole or universal — and does not refer to the later Roman Catholic denomination. Nor does the passage concern Christian universalism, the doctrine that every person will ultimately be saved.
No evidence records a council, vote or proclamation in 109 by which the Church renamed itself. The date and even the historical setting of the Ignatian letters remain actively debated, with published alternatives placing them in the 130s, 140s or later.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date disputed
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Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~110.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The year 109 cannot be independently established. A conventional date is around 107–110 or, more broadly, the second decade of the second century.
- The date and even the historical setting of the Ignatian letters remain actively debated. Published alternatives place them in the 130s, 140s, or later, although many scholars retain an early-second-century date.
- Ignatius’s martyrdom chronology depends substantially on later evidence, especially Eusebius; there is no surviving contemporary calendar date for the letter.