St. Theophilus of Antioch

St. Theophilus of Antioch was bishop of Antioch in Syria in the later second century, one of the great early sees of Christendom, and a learned convert who came to the faith, by his own account, through the reading of the Scriptures. He is numbered among the apologists who defended and explained Christianity to the cultured pagan world.

His surviving work, three books addressed To Autolycus, a pagan friend, defends the faith, ridicules the myths and immorality of the pagan gods, sets forth the Christian doctrine of the one God, the creation, and the resurrection, and marshals arguments from the antiquity and truth of the Scriptures. He holds a notable place in the history of doctrine as the earliest Christian writer known to have used the Greek word Trias, "Triad" or "Trinity," to speak of God, Word, and Wisdom, an early step toward the Church's fuller language for the mystery of the Holy Trinity. He is venerated as a saint, his memory kept on 13 October.