As Scott Hahn might say, "I figured out something only to realize the Fathers of the Church already said it."
(Cradle Catholic)

For me, it was St Augustine first … then Ignatius. As a Calvinist, Augustine’s ecclesiology was shockingly Catholic. Not just Catholic, but ROMAN Catholic. I realized that this “patron saint” of Calvinist soteriology would never be permitted to mount the pulpit of any Calvinist church I had ever attended. But worse, I would not be admitted into Augustine’s church either. So I had to basically make the decision that either Augustine was totally wrong… or I was. Easy choice. I became Catholic. I could not imagine the Christian church without Augustine’s beautiful faith and mind and love for Christ. But I could certainly imagine it without mine. So I changed.

I was raised anti-Catholic. Churches I attended deliberately proselytized Catholics. This was true through my years at Moody Bible Institute and in my own churches when I pastored.
I was in my late 40’s when I stumbled upon Justin Martyr and Ireneaus. They shook my world!
I was so anti-Catholic, I first went Anglican, then Anglo-Catholic (studying for the priesthood). I realized that Anglicanism wasn’t solidly committed to Nicene beliefs. I went Orthodox but continued studying the Ecumenical Councils. They affirmed papal primacy.
I finally humbled myself & gave in to became Catholic. I am so incredibly thankful!

Ex Evangelical here! I read these letters and knew I was a heretic 😂. I wanted to please my Lord in all things, I wanted to be part of His REAL Church, I wanted to eat HIS Flesh and drink HIS Blood, and St. Ignatius is my patron Saint now. God bless! "All the pleasures of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, shall profit me nothing. It is better for me to die on behalf of Jesus Christ, than to reign over all the ends of the earth." – St. Ignatius

Top surprises as a revert:

1.  How all the documentary writings of the early Christians are consistent with Ignatious (e.g., it is impossible to read Clement I and not see Roman church authority, and impossible to square Justin Martyr and sola fide)

2.  How nothing in the early church writings supports any doctrine that is uniquely or distinctively Protestant or Evangelical. The opposite, actually.

3.  How hard one myst strain to “interpret” the Bible to try to avoid Catholic doctrine. I used ti think Protestantism and Evangelicalism is super Biblical. I now see they are supra-Biblical — it is a belief system that elevates its man-made doctrines (e.g., sola fide, sola scriptura, and its 15th century or later takes on John 6 and baptism and salvation) far above and beyond the words of the Bible.

I am a recent catholic revert, having fallen away from the church after high school graduation. it was absolutely the early church fathers that helped "convince" me of the truthfulness of catholic doctrine, and more specifically Saint Ignatius of Antioch, and what the eucharist actual is. my story may have led me into a protestant denomination of it weren't for those two things. well that and great apologists like you, Trent Horn, and Jimmy Akin. so after being away from the church for over 25 years, I'm finally getting confirmed. better late than never, right?

Long before videos like this were being made, I was reading the Patristics.  I had to fight really hard to ignore the reality before me:  "These people are decidedly Catholic."  I hated that fact for years.  God, in His grace, has mercifully softened my heart.  I am so thankful.

For me, I was a Reformed Baptist and a staunch anti-Catholic. The very beginning of my slow conversion to Catholicism began when I heard about Mary being the Mother of God. I assumed, "wait, that can't be right. Mary didn't create God. That's idolatry." I looked up the Council of Ephesus which tackled this very issue and I was astonished to see how much richness and detail in history that the Catholic Church goes back to. Then, I began to really delve into Catholic theology and Sacramental theology. I eventually came to a point to where I had practically stopped believing in Sola Scriptura, and since the evidence of the validity of the Catholic Church was all around me, I conceded. The biggest point though what the Eucharist. I realized that merely praying and reading the Bible doesn't make you holy, although they definitely do help. I was spiritually malnourished. I thought, how did people become holy back during the Early Church when they didn't have a Bible compiled and printed out? The answer? They partook of the Eucharist, the true Body and Blood of Christ. It was never merely a memorial or a symbol. They believed Christ was truly present in the Eucharist. If they believed that and if the Church taught that, and if ordained men like St Ignatius received their ordination from the Apostles themselves and taught this, who am I, a 28 year old bearded hick from California, to arrogantly say that they are wrong? Eventually, the evidence became too great to ignore. I decided to convert back in October, left my Baptist church, and now I'm on track to be confirmed as a Catholic on Easter.

Catholic theology professor here, and, I’ve got to say, Joe is killing it. I think he’s my favorite Catholic YouTuber and the one I refer most to my students. He also has some great shirts, haha.

As a former episcopalian, once I woke up and finally realizing how messed up that church was, becoming Catholic was very easy. The real presence and learning Mary is our Mother was icing on the cake.

I took Irenaeus as my confirmation name. In his book Against Heresies when he affirmed that the Church in Rome was in fact founded by St. Peter and St. Paul and said that it was remarkably faithful to the apostolic teachings and traditions and that it should have preeminence over all other churches that was a huge light bulb moment for me in my conversion journey.

For me, it was Saint Ignatius of Antioch that answered the questions I had and not my prodestant pastor or my church groups. Pray for me as I start down the narrow path through the narrow gate.

As a former atheist, I thank God that I can partake in His feast and share with all my brothers and sisters, from times without memory, the most Holy communion with Our Lord Jesus Christ.
God bless us all, come back to the church all you who have abandoned her! She shall not perish, there is nothing to protest against that would make it good to leave her.

I’m a former Protestant and St. Ignatius of Antioch was extremely convincing, along with the other Church fathers. Seeing the Hagia Sophia in-person, and its holy water fonts and infant baptismal font, also helped convert me even though it was officially a museum at the time i went, because it showed me that Christianity early on didn’t look at all like Southern Baptist churches or Evangelical churches, it looked exactly like the 1 or 2 Catholic Churches I had been to. I also discovered the Hagia Sofia began construction at least 12 years before the Bible was even canonized at the Council of Rome, and that the leaders of the Church in Constantinople who were working on it helped canonize the Bible. So if these guys were trusted by Protestants as guided by the Holy Spirit to canonize the Bible and they were clearly practicing Catholicism or Orthodoxy, that was a huge problem. I couldn’t stay Protestant.

What surprised me growing up Protestant and then converting to Catholicism was that I had been missing books of the Bible my entire life

St Ignatius is one of many keys to realizing that the Catholic Church emerged immediately from the apostolic age.

Former Anglican/Lutheran. What kick started my conversion was finding out basically everything I thought the Catholic Church believed/taught was completely wrong.

I was raised Prot/Evangelical but we weren't an every Sunday kind of family. I fell away in my teens and went through various things like Norse Paganism and Atheism and finally back to Christianity. When researching different denominations it quickly became clear to me that the only contenders were Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy when I was introduced to the early Apostolic Fathers like Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Polycarp. Another big one was researching how the canon of Scripture developed. I'm currently in OCIA and will hopefully be joining the Church on Easter Vigil 2025.

I would say the most demeaning and eye-opening thing is the realization that when Protestants say "You read Church Fathers while I read the Bible" they're not presenting the true essence of the meaning of scriptures, however, their own interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures with the foundation of theology and dogmatism that is alienated and foreign to the Early Church, like the sola fide or sola scriptura.

In other words, I realize Protestantism is another "pious" new atheism, with pride and vanity ushered in; rejecting Authority and amounting themselves more worthy interpreters than the Church herself in their utmost Glory and majesty.

I asked a very dear protestant friend of mine to read St. Ignatius' letters recently. My friend's final thoughts were that St. Ignatius sounded "suicidal" and obsessed with his own death (even more so than the death of Christ). He saw him as 'some guy' with no authority who sounded crazy. Finally, he insisted that if St. Ignatius was truly as important as we are led to believe, his beloved bible church pastors and Sunday school teachers would have taught about him. He felt that because he had gone all through childhood and into adulthood, never hearing about this guy who came after the gospels, it made this man irrelevant. St. Ignatius' writings "did not pass [his] sniff test."

Please pray for my friend