Book review: “Fathers of the Faith: Saint Irenaeus”

I read "Fathers of the Faith: Saint Irenaeus" by Mike Aquilina mostly by flashlight since part of Shawnee had an electrical power outage that affected my monastery when I was reading this book. This is an interesting and quick introduction to the life and works of Saint Irenaeus who Pope Francis on Jan. 21 declared a Doctor of the Church. He is the only martyr doctor. 

When I heard that the pope had done this, I thought that Saint Irenaeus was already a doctor, but that was not the case. He is a worthy doctor since he connects with those Fathers of the Church who knew Saint John the Apostle, like his mentor Saint Polycarp. Saint Irenaeus was born around 130 A.D. in Smyrna (Izmir, Turkey) where Saint Polycarp was the bishop; he died as a martyr in Lyon, France, where he was the bishop. His feast day is June 28.
 
Saint Irenaeus studied the Gnostic teachings of his time and collected information about them into two of the volumes of his four volume set entitled, “Against the Heresies.” 

This work includes this, but also connects what the Apostles and the early Church Fathers taught and believed about the Faith. He became an authority on the Gnostic beliefs and was able to refute them because he had studied them in depth.

Some of Saint Irenaeus' works are lost, but who knows, they may get rediscovered in some out of the way library or closet. The British poet Lord Byron from the Victorian era was helpful in discovering and verifying copies of Saint Irenaeus' works as they were known at that time. It is an interesting story involving Armenia.
 
Mike Aquilina is a renown patristic authority and author of many books, television series and documentaries. The next book in this series on the Church Fathers is on Saint Augustine. 

In this current book, he writes using some academic language but also uses non-academic language in his presentation. He uses the method of telling a lively narrative biography instead of a dry academic biography. 

He mixes the biography with quotes from Saint Irenaeus' works. Some quotes are not short, which gives the reader a sample of Saint Irenaeus' work. 

There are endnotes and a bibliography of English and other language resources. There are no illustrations. A map would have been helpful since Saint Irenaeus traveled from Asia Minor (Turkey) to Rome and to Lyon, France. This book is highly recommended to those looking for an introduction to Saint Irenaeus and also to learn about the newest Doctor of the Church. 
 
Br. Benet Exton, O.S.B., Saint Gregory's Abbey, Shawnee, is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.