Ignatius of Antioch and the Apostolic Fathers

Some modern historians today estimate Ignatius as being far too late to have ever met Jesus. Bishop Polykarp of Smyrna was allegedly the pupil of John the Apostle. Neither Pope Clement I nor Ignatius of Antioch taught any churchmen or theologians whose writings have survived. But both were teachers of Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, one of the great Christian thinkers of the second century.