The Apostolic Fathers

✍ Scribed by by Walsh S.J., Gerald G. (Translator), Francis X. Grimm (Translator), Marique S.J., Joseph M.-F. (Translator)

• Publisher: The Catholic University of America Press
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 411
• Series: Fathers of the Church Patristic Series
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The name "Apostolic Fathers" was first applied in 1672 to a group of five writers who were taken either to have been in touch directly with some of the original Twelve Apostles or, in the next generation, to reflect the teaching of their immediate successors: Clement of Rome (fourth in the list of Popes), Ignatius (second bishop of Antioch), Polycarp of Smyrna (recorded as a disciple of the evangelst John), "Barnabas" (reputedly St. Paul's co-worker), and a Hermas, associated, though wrongly, with Hermas of Romans 16.14. With the later addition of Papias of Hierapolis and the unknown writer of the Epistle to Diognetus, the number of the Apostolic Fathers rose to seven; a final addition to the group was the Didache, a brief, early manual on morals and Church practice. Anything but homogenous in origin, form, and purpose, and ranging widely in all of these respects, these writings are of prime importance for the understanding of the Church around the year 100 A.D. Unless it be the Apostles' Creed itself, nothing precedes them in the development of Patrology.

✦ Table of Contents

ST. CLEMENT OF ROME
THE LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS
Introduction
Text
THE SO,CALLED SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS
Introduction
Text
ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH
THE LETTERS
Introduction
Text
To the Ephesians
To the Magnesians .
To the Trallians
To the Romans
To the Philadelphians.
To the Smyrnaeans .
To Polycarp
ST. POLYCARP
THE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS
Introduction
Text
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. POLYCARP
Introduction
Text
DIDACHE OR TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES
Introduction
Text
THE LETTER OF BARNABAS
Introduction
Text
THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS
Introduction
Text
LETTER TO DIOGNETUS
Introduction
Text
THE FRAGMENTS OF PAPIAS
INDEX
Introduction
Text