"I am God's wheat and shall be ground by [the animals'] teeth so that I may become Christ's pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God. . . . He who died in the place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire. The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God."
Saint Ignatius was a successor of Saint Peter as bishop of Antioch. Condemned to death by being thrown to wild animals, he was brought to Rome for execution and was martyred under the Emperor Trajan in 107. On the journey to Rome he wrote seven letters to different churches. The above quotation is from one of those letters: a letter to the Romans by Saint Ignatius, bishop and martyr.
(Quotation and explanation taken from The Liturgy of the Hours for Oct. 17.)
"Men of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! . . ." -Aragorn, speech before the Black Gate of Mordor
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