Doctor of the Church II

 

DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH II

FATHERS OF THE CHURCH, MARTYRS, CONFESSORS AND DOCTORS

In each era of confusion and challenge which the Church has faced in history, the Holy Spirit has bestowed on certain men and women, a unique gift of wisdom in living out and passing on the Gospel. And with the varying needs of the age and the natural dispositions of every saint, this gift has taken on many shapes. All the doctors have been authentic teachers and guides of the faith in person and writing, but each of them has helped their generation and the following generations to follow Jesus Christ our Lord with renewed fervor and understanding

Eminent Christian writers of the first, second, and third centuries are usually referred to as the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

During the era of the Church Fathers, (approximately AD 100-AD 800), eight Doctors particularly stand out and are called “Ecumenical Fathers” because of their widespread influence.  Bronze statues of several of these eight are to be found in the Basilica of St. Peter. Five of these hailed from the Western (Latin-speaking) half of the Roman Empire, though the earliest of them came originally from the East and spoke Greek.

MARTYRS

In early centuries, Christians who were executed in the Roman Empire for refusing to renounce their faith are called martyrs. Martyr means witness. The Martyrs were commemorated by their local communities and referred to as holy; Sanctus or sancta, in Latin. The graves of these saints were considered holy places, and believers would visit them to pray.

CONFESSORS

Later, those who had been imprisoned but not put to death were honored by other Christians because of their outstanding courage and strength of faith. Their communities called them “confessors” because they professed their faith. Then, other titles were eventually added to distinguish additional categories of saints, such as bishop, priest or widow. Even children were, and still can be, approved for saintly veneration.

It is worth noting that for the first one thousand years, holy men and women were venerated as saints regionally, usually with the approval of the local bishop. Later, the popes took charge of officially proclaiming saints, and a formal process developed for examining the applications, or causes, of saintly candidates proposed by regional bishops or other religious groups.

SCHOLARS AND TEACHERS

Over time, a handful of Christian saints and teachers became especially renowned for their writings or scholarship. A few from the early centuries of the church were recognized as important teachers, or fathers of the church, by both Western and Eastern churches; which finally split into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, respectively, in the 11th century.

DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH 

In the Middle Ages, other saintly teachers in Western Europe were acclaimed specifically as doctors of the church by the authority of popes. Some revered theologians began to be known as doctor of a specific idea or characteristic. For example, contemporaries of the medieval theologian St. Albert the Great, who died in 1280 AD, came to refer to him as the “universal doctor” because of the wide range of topics he covered in his writings. Even one or two of the earlier fathers of the church acquired these additional titles, such as St. Augustine. This North African saint, one of the most influential Christian theologians, died in 430 AD and became known as the “doctor of grace” because of his theories about grace as a free gift of God. In several regions, local communities gave similar titles to other respected figures even if they were not officially recognized as saints.

WOMEN AS DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH

Until after the Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962 to 1965 and initiated significant modern reforms in the church, all doctors of the church were men; and were usually bishops or priests. In the following decades, that changed.

Today, the Catholic Church recognizes four saintly and learned women from several different centuries for their theological and spiritual writings. They include the 16th-century Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila and the 12th-century German abbess Hildegard of Bingen, an expert on herbal medicine and botany as well as liturgical drama and music.

© Rev Fr Utazi Prince Marie Benignus Zereuwa

August 5 2023