Faith & RitualGreek → English
Irenaeus
/ˌaɪrɪˈniːəs/proper noun
A personal name, borne most famously by the second-century bishop of Lyon who wrote against the Gnostics.
The Greek roots
εἰρηναῖος
eirēnaîos
peaceful
εἰρήνη
eirḗnē
peace
Literally: “peaceable man”
The story of the word
Eirene was both an abstract noun and a minor goddess, one of the Horai, shown in Athens holding the infant Wealth. The bishop's name suited a man whose surviving letters mostly try to stop churches quarrelling over the date of Easter. English keeps the adjective as irenic, used of theology that seeks common ground.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
Ireneirenicirenicism
In a sentence
Irenaeus is the first writer to list all four gospels as scripture.
Her middle name, Irene, came down from a Greek great-grandmother.