The Epistle of Ignatius to Hero, a Deacon of Antioch
Chapter I.—Exhortations to earnestness and moderation.
Chapter II.—Cautions against false teachers.
Chapter III.—Exhortations as to ecclesiastical duties.
Chapter IV.—Servants and women are not to be despised.
Chapter V.—Various relative duties.
Chapter VI—Exhortations to purity and caution.
Chapter VII.—Solemn charge to Hero, as future bishop of Antioch.
Salute Cassian, my host, and his most serious-minded partner in life, and their very dear children, to whom may “God grant that they find mercy of the Lord in that day,”30 2 Tim. i. 18. on account of their ministrations to us, whom also I commend to thee in Christ. Salute by name all the faithful in Christ that are at Laodicea. Do not neglect those at Tarsus, but look after them steadily, confirming them in the Gospel. I salute in the Lord, Maris the bishop of Neapolis, near Anazarbus. Salute thou also Mary my daughter, distinguished both for gravity and erudition, as also “the Church which is in her house.”31 Col. iv. 15. May my soul be in place of hers: she is the very pattern of pious women. May the Father of Christ, by His only-begotten Son, preserve thee in good health, and of high repute in all things, to a very old age, for the benefit of the Church of God! Farewell in the Lord, and pray thou that I may be perfected.