Monday, October 17, 2011

A Recently Discovered Appendix to Ignatius' Letter to the Magnesians

A fragment of an appendix to the letter of St. Ignatius to the Christians in Magnesia on the Maeandar has been discovered in a monastery high atop Mt. Athos. This important discovery gives Patristic Scholars an understanding of medicines used in the Second Century and the place of antacids in Late Antiquity

P.S. I give thanks to God and to your godly Bishop Damas, your worthy presbyters Bassus and Apollonius and the deacon Zotion, and for the Church which is Magnesia on the Maeander for your faithful witness, but most of all for the little blue bottle of milk which you presented me to relieve my distress. It calmed my stomach, ceased the rumblings from deep with in me, and opened wide the floodgates, creating a Fearful Case of the Trots, which had convinced me that I would meet our Blessed Lord long before the beasts of the arena in Rome would have their opportunity. Now I have been cleansed. However, the texture is somewhat chalky, and the flavour of this milk was much worse than if it had been left out in the sun for two days; it was all I could do to keep it down. The Lord has called me to suffer for the faith and end of appendix has been lost.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holey, Holey, Holey!

Melvinnia Spurl-Zapiña

Harry Allagree said...

Ignatius...a saint unto the end! :-)

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