Ensarkosi
A Christian at prayer, a third-century fresco in the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome. The writer calls himself Mathetes, “a disciple”; he is otherwise unknown

Author of the Letter to Diognetus, unknown · second century

Mathetes

The name Mathetes, “a disciple”, is all we have of the author of the Letter to Diognetus, a short and eloquent description of how Christians live in the world. Who he was, and to whom he wrote, is unknown.

Writings

  1. Letter

    The Epistle to Diognetus

    A short, eloquent answer to a pagan’s questions about Christians: how they live, why they do not worship idols, and why Christianity came so late.

    18 min read · translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson

Image: drawn in the site’s engraved style from “Consecrated Virgin, praying with Orans position, from the Catacomb of Priscilla”, public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

All the Fathers