Our father among the saints Ignatius the God-bearer of Antioch (probably died AD 107) was the third bishop of Antioch, after the Apostle Peter and Euodios, whom Ignatius succeeded around AD 68. Ignatius, who also called himself Theophorus (“God-bearer”), was most likely a disciple of both Apostles Peter and John. Several of his letters have survived to this day; he is one of the Apostolic Fathers (the earliest group of the Church Fathers), and a saint in the Orthodox Church (feastday, December 20).