Blessed are the peacemakers...Irenaeus was an early(ish) Church father, having been taught by Polycarp, who had been taught by John the Evangelist, who of course hung out with Jesus. That was back in the day when pedagogical pedigree made a difference.
Irenaeus was the second bishop of Lugdonum (Lyon), the main trading port for western Gaul. He narrowly escaped being martyred by the polytheists who did not welcome Christian missionaries into their midst; the first bishop had sent him on a mission to Rome just before the slaughter. When he returned, he found himself elevated to the office of bishop by virtue of being the last man standing.
He apparently did well there, becoming an influential leader against the rising heterodoxy Gnosticism. Yet he was no blind dogmatist. When the Quartodecimans were threatening a schism because they did not calculate the date of Easter in the same way that the Pope did, Irenaeus served as a mediator. He advised the Pope that it really wasn't worth fighting over so the split was averted.
His shrine was kept at the church bearing his name in Lyon until the Calvinists destroyed it in 1562. Schismatic bastards.
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