The CHURCH IN ANTIOCH having been probably founded by St. Peter, that Apostle is believed to have left behind him two Bishops in the city, the one Evodius, having the episcopal care of the Jewish converts, whilst Ignatius was placed in charge of the Gentile Christians; but, on the death of Evodius, A.D. 70, Ignatius became sole Bishop. [Sidenote: St. Ignatius.] This holy man is said to have been the child whom our Lord took in His arms and set in the midst of His disciples. He was intimate with some or all of the Apostles, especially with St. John, and was martyred by being thrown to wild beasts at Rome, A.D. 107. The synods held at Antioch were very numerous, and far larger than any others, approaching almost in size and importance to General Councils. [Sidenote: St. John Chrysostom.] It was at Antioch that the celebrated and eloquent St. John Chrysostom was born about A.D. 347: he became Bishop of Constantinople, and died A.D. 407, after undergoing persecutions which almost amounted to a martyrdom. [Sidenote: St. Paul and St. John in Asia Minor.] We have already seen (pp. 31, 32) that the CHURCHES OF ASIA MINOR owe their foundation chiefly to St. Paul, whilst their perfect organization and development was entrusted to St. John the Divine (pp. 49 to 51). The Seven Churches of the Apocalypse seem to have been in a special manner the charge of the latter Apostle, Ephesus, the chief of them, being the home of his later earthly years, and the scene of his decease and burial. [Sidenote: The "Angels" of the Seven Churches.] St. Timothy, the first Bishop of Ephesus, had been succeeded probably by Onesimus; St. Polycarp (martyred A.D. 167) had the episcopal charge of Smyrna; {85} Archippus, it is believed, had followed Epaphras at Laodicea. The names of the other "Angels" spoken of in the Apocalypse have not come down to us, but there is no doubt that at the time when the seven inspired Epistles were addressed to these Churches, there was in each of them a firmly established episcopacy, and that this form of government was followed by all other Churches throughout the world. There is little that needs recording of the history of these Churches of Asia Minor, unless we except the Great Council of Ephesus, held in that city, A.D. 431, to condemn the heresy of Nestorius (p. 71). [Sidenote: St. Bartholomew in Armenia.] The CHURCH OF ARMENIA, now included in Asiatic Turkey, is believed to have been first founded by St. Bartholomew. The country is said to have been further evangelized by a mission sent by St. Gregory the Illuminator in the third century. It is known that, in the following century, a flourishing Church existed there. [Sidenote: Several Apostles in Parthia.]