What is the Origin of the Name “Catholic”?

Saint Feast Day: October 17 Saint Ignatius of Antioch

St. Ignatius of Antioch, also called Ignatius Theophoros (Greek: “God Bearer”).


St. Ignatius was the first one to use the word Catholic to describe the Church. He lived from 35 – 107 AD and was a disciple of the Apostle John.

From the 12th Century until 1969 his feast day was celebrated on February 1, but after the Roman Catholic Church liturgical reforms in 1969, the feast day was transferred to October 17.

On Oct. 17, the Roman Catholic Church remembers the early Church Father, bishop, and martyr Saint Ignatius of Antioch, whose writings attest to the sacramental and hierarchical nature of the Church from its earliest days. Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate his memory on Dec. 20.

Why did I brought up this? Because I research more spiritual comprehension where does the word “Catholic” comes from?

Here is the answer:

The word catholic’; derived via Late Latin catholicus, from the Greek adjective καθολικός (katholikos), meaning “universal”comes from the Greek phrase καθόλου (katholou), meaning “of the whole”, “according to the whole” or “in general”, and is a combination of the Greek words κατά meaning “about” and ὅλος meaning “whole.”

From the second half of the second century, the word “catholic” began to be used to mean “orthodox” (non-heretical), “because Catholics claimed to teach the whole truth, and to represent the whole Church, while heresy arose out of the exaggeration of some one truth and was essentially partial and local,”

The earliest recorded evidence from a Catholic bishop of the use of the term “Catholic Church” is the Letter to the Smyrnaeans that Ignatius of Antioch wrote in about 107 to Christians in Smyrna. This was written in his farewell letter. First century Christian writers used term as did the followers of Christ during the latter half of the first century.

Please click history of St. Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius used, for the first time in Christian literature, the expression “catholic church,” meaning the whole church that is one and the same wherever there is a Christian congregation. The first use of the term “Catholic Church” (literally meaning “universal church”) was by the church father Saint Ignatius of Antioch (c. 50–140) in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans (circa 110 AD).

I research more

The first use of the term “Catholic Church” (literally meaning “universal church”) was by the church father Saint Ignatius of Antioch (c. 50–140) in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans (circa 110 AD). He died in Rome, with his relics located in the Basilica of San Clemente al Laterano.

I love Catholic Church Questions and Answers you can click What were Christians called before St. Ignatius of Antioch referred to them as Catholics?

Update more blessing research first read before sharing verse ok?

The first time in History the word “Christian” was used is found in the Book of Acts in chapter 11 verse 26 where it says, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” Prior to this time in the book of Acts, there was no specific name for those who followed Jesus Christ other than believers, followers, and disciples. So, this was the first time in history in Antioch that followers of Christ were called “Christian.”

The original Greek word for Christian is “Christianos” which comes from the two Greek words “Christ and tian.” The word Christ means “anointed” and tian means “little.” So the word “Christian” literally means “little anointed ones.” During his life Jesus was called the “messiah” which meant “the anointed one” and we are his “little anointed ones” who have been anointed by his Holy Spirit to represent Him in this world.

Paul/Shaul wrote Acts 11:25-27 TLV

25 Then Barnabas left for Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met together with Messiah’s community and taught a large number. Now it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christianoi.”[a]

27 Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 

Footnotes

  1. Acts 11:26 Grk. Christianoi (Christians); Heb. M’shichim (Messianics); Eng. anointed ones; cf. Acts 26:28; 1 Pet. 4:16.

That’s what I see more and spiritually comprehended Yeshua spoke on John 6 same time reading excellent information about:

“Ignatius roundly declares that . . . [t]he bread is the flesh of Jesus, the cup his blood. Clearly he intends this realism to be taken strictly, for he makes it the basis of his argument against the Docetists’ denial of the reality of Christ’s body. . . . Irenaeus teaches that the bread and wine are really the Lord’s body and blood. His witness is, indeed, all the more impressive because he produces it quite incidentally while refuting the Gnostic and Docetic rejection of the Lord’s real humanity” (ibid., 197–98).

Recommend please click and read What the Early Church Believed: The Real Presence

I admire his few quotes:

St. Ignatius of Antioch
“I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible” (Letter to the Romans 7:3 [A.D. 110]). please click What the Early Church Believed: The Real Presence


“Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:2–7:1 [A.D. 110]).

Amen!