Letter to Victor of Rome · §2 · Irenaeus of Lyons

Failure to do good estranges from the Lord's love

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Irenaeus closes the letter with a general warning about failing to do good to a neighbor.

If someone is able to do good to their neighbors and does not do it, that person will be considered a stranger to the love of the Lord. Irenaeus concluded with this saying.

Greek

Ἐν ᾧ ἄν τις δύναιτο εὖ ποιεῖν τοῖς πλησίον καὶ οὐ ποιεῖ· ἀλλότριος τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Κυρίου νομισθήσεται. Hoc attulit

About this text

Surviving fragments of Irenaeus' letter urging Victor of Rome to keep peace with churches that kept a different Easter custom.

Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130–c. 202) wrote this letter to Victor, bishop of Rome. Irenaeus was bishop of Lyons in Gaul, but he had grown up in Asia Minor and had known Polycarp of Smyrna, giving him a direct connection to the apostolic generation. He wrote during a dispute over the day and manner of the Paschal fast, urging Victor not to break communion with churches that observed a different custom.

The occasion was Victor's decision to excommunicate the Asian churches, often called Quartodecimans, over the date of Easter. Irenaeus protested this decision. He argued that differences over the fast were long-standing and did not break the unity of faith. He reminded Victor that earlier Roman bishops, though they did not observe the Asian custom themselves, had lived in peace with those who did and had even sent the Eucharist to them.

A reader will meet Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and a disciple of John the apostle, who observed the Asian custom. Irenaeus recounts Polycarp's meeting in Rome with Anicetus, an earlier bishop of Rome. The two men disagreed on the fast but remained in communion, and Anicetus yielded the Eucharist to Polycarp as a sign of respect. Irenaeus also lists earlier Roman bishops who did not observe the Asian fast: Xystus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, and those before Soter, who was Victor's immediate predecessor. The letter closes with a warning that anyone who can do good to a neighbor and fails to do so will be considered a stranger to the love of the Lord.

New English from the Greek base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Reliquiae Sacrae: Sive, Auctorum Fere Jam Perditorum Secundi Tertiique Saeculi Post Christum Natum Quae Supersunt. Martin Joseph Routh Oxford Oxford University Press 1846 2 (Greek)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.