some two centuries and a half after the martyrdom, he should quietly
have accepted the representations of the Epistles purporting to have
been written by the martyr himself, and that their story should have
shaped the prevailing tradition.

The remains of Ignatius, as we are informed by Chrysostom and Jerome,
long remained interred in the cemetery of Antioch, but finally--in the
time of Theodosius, it is said--were translated with great pomp and
ceremony to a building which--such is the irony of events--had
previously been a Temple of Fortune. The story told, of course, is that
the relics of the martyr had been carefully collected in the Coliseum
and carried from Rome to Antioch. After reposing there for some
centuries, the relics, which are said to have been transported from Rome
to Antioch, were, about the seventh century, carried back from Antioch
to Rome. [111:1] The natural and more simple conclusion is that, instead
of this double translation, the bones of Ignatius had always remained in
Antioch, where he had suffered martyrdom, and the tradition that they
had been brought back from Rome was merely the explanation which
reconciled the fact of their actually being in Antioch with the legend
of the Ignatian Epistles.

The 20th of December is the date assigned to the death of Ignatius in
the Martyrology, [112:1] and Zahn admits that this interpretation is
undeniable [112:2] Moreover, the anniversary of his death was celebrated
on that day in the Greek Churches and throughout the East. In the Latin
Church it is kept on the 1st of February. There can be little doubt that
this was the day of the translation of the relics to Rome, and this was
evidently the view of Ruinart, who, although he could not positively
contradict the views of his own Church, says: "Ignatii festum Graeci
vigesima die mensis Decembris celebrant, quo ipsum passum, fuisse Acta