This pattern of governance dates back to the earliest centuries of Christianity, as witnessed by the writings of Ignatius of Antioch (c. 100 AD): The bishop in each Church presides in the place of God... Let no one do any of the things which concern the Church without the bishop... Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be, just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. And it is the bishop's primary and distinctive task to celebrate the Eucharist, "the medicine of immortality."