Fathers of the Church

Fathers of the Church collective name for the Christian writers of early times whose work is considered generally orthodox. A convenient definition includes all such writers up to and including St. Gregory I (St. Gregory the Great) in the West and St. John of Damascus in the East (see patristic literature ). There are several conventional groupings of the Fathers of the Church. One of these is the Apostolic Fathers, usually considered to include the authors of the Didache, of the Epistles of Clement, of the Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch, and of the Shepherd of Hermas. In an ancient category of honor eight Doctors of the Church are set apart; the Four Doctors of the Greek Church are St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Athanasius; the Four Doctors of the Latin Church are St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great. Since the 16th cent., the title Doctor of the Church has also been given by the Roman Catholic Church to later doctrinal writers, including St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventura, St. Anselm, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, and St. Catherine of Siena.

Fathers of the Church. From the late 4th cent. the title has been used of an indeterminate group of ecclesiastical writers of the past whose authority on doctrinal matters carried special weight; they were held to be characterized by orthodoxy of doctrine, holiness of life, the approval of the Church, and antiquity. The patristic period is commonly regarded as closing with St Isidore of Seville in the W. and St John of Damascus in the East. Among the Orthodox, however, no such limitation is found.

Fathers of the Church, the early Christian writers, a term usually applied to those of the first five cents. Sometimes the Greek and Latin fathers are distinguished, the former including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Cyprian, Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, and Chrysostom; the latter Tertullian, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, Gregory ( Pope Gregory I), and Bernard.