St. Irenaeus of Lyons - A Witness for Truth in the Early Church

Today, June 28th, the Church celebrates St. Irenaeus of Lyons.  Irenaeus, who lived in the late second century, was a bishop, a defender of the faith, and an early martyr.  A large portion of St. Irenaeus' writings have come down to us, including a large tome, Against Heresies, in which St. Irenaeus defended the true Catholic faith against attacks from groups known as Gnostics. 

One thing St. Irenaeus emphasizes is authority in the Church.  When there are people in the Church teaching contradictory things, to whom do we turn?  How do we know the truth which Christ handed on to the Apostles?  Who teaches with Christ's authority today?

In answering these questions, St. Irenaeus points his readers in the early Church to consider the tradition handed on in the Churches through the bishops, who are successors of the Apostles:

"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" (Against Heresies 3:3:1).

St. Irenaeus doesn't stop there.  When it comes to knowing the truth, the Christian is instructed to turn to the Church of Rome, the Church that all the other Churches must agree with:

"But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the succession of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, that church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. With that church, because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world, and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition" (Against Heresies 3:3:2).

Here, around the year 190 AD, St. Irenaeus of Lyons essentially gives us a description of Roman Catholicism!