Today in the Holy Orthodox Church we commemorate the holy Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer, Bishop of Antioch.  

This holy man is called “the God-bearer” because he constantly bore the name of the Living God in his heart and on his lips.  According to tradition, he was thus named because he was held in the arms of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ.  On a day when the Lord was teaching His disciples humility, He took a child and placed him among them, saying: Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:4).  This child was Ignatius.  As the third Bishop of Antioch, Ignatius governed the Church of God as a good shepherd and was the first to introduce antiphonal chanting in the Church, in which two choirs alternate the singing.  This manner of chanting was revealed to Ignatius by the angels in heaven. When Emperor Trajan was passing through Antioch on his way to do battle with the Persians, he heard of Ignatius, summoned him and counseled him to offer sacrifice to the idols.  If Ignatius would do so, Trajan would bestow upon him the rank of senator.  Ignatius refused, and was shackled in irons and sent to Rome with ten merciless soldiers, to be thrown to the wild beasts.  Ignatius rejoiced in suffering for his Lord, only praying to God that the wild beasts would become the tomb for his body and that no one would prevent him from this death.  After a long and difficult journey from Asia through Thrace, Macedonia and Epirus, Ignatius arrived in Rome, where he was thrown to the lions in the circus in the year 106.