The Church Doctors: An Overview

Catholic Frequency: Welcome to the Catholic Frequency podcast. We're teaming up today with some friends to bring you part one of a series on the doctors of the church. Well, we hear this term, the doctors of the church and the church fathers, and, I thought we would just sort of start to, dig into it because there are a lot of doctors of the church. There's 37 of them, and of course, some of them we're all familiar with, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, but there's some you might not have ever heard of. And so Lent is a time for us to go deeper in our faith than we hear a lot about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, but actually stimulating our intellect to learn more and more about the faith is a wonderful thing to be doing this Lent.

So we're going to be talking a little bit about doctors of the church. And, basically, it's when the Catholic church recognizes a saint whose theological writings, their teachings, or their spiritual insights have profoundly shaped Christian doctrine and practice. Here is what Bishop Robert Baron says a doctor of the church is.

Catholic Deacon: I think it's someone who teaches the faith in such a rich and compelling way that the whole church could benefit from listening to him or to her. So there are teachers, I mean, up and down the centuries. Every priest, every bishop is a is a teacher of the church. But there are certain doctores, teachers, that are so penetrating and so incisive and so maybe encyclopedic or so rich that the whole church should sit up and and listen.

Catholic Frequency: Everybody should, sit up and listen to some of these that are so I think that's such a great way to explain. And he said every course, every priest is a teacher. Right? A bishop and a deacon too. Right?

Deacons, you are commissioned to teach. What would you say about doctors of the church?

Jan: Yeah. His excellency, has said it perfectly. You know, the doctors of the church, they're although, you know, they're inspired by the Holy Spirit, I mean, their teachings are are, are not infallible. But what's important is is that, you know, we give these designations. One is to, you know, to defend the church, but at the same time, we are, we are enlightening the faithful because, you know, the enemy never rests.

So it's important that, the faithful really understand the teachings of the church and how these specific saints have made, a timeless contribution. When I say timeless, I mean today, you know, theologians, still are unpacking Aquinas or Augustine. And, and so, you know, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. It's defending the church, it's enlightening, the faithful, and it gives us, confidence that, you know, the church Catholic teaching is true, and it's rooted all the way back, to, to the time of Jesus and the people who were around Jesus like Peter and, and and those, the successors that followed.

Catholic Frequency: Well, when, when the church considers who might it name a doctor of the church, it really kinda looks at three areas. They have to be incredibly holy. Right? Sanctity. They have to have their teaching has to be orthodox, of course.

And they have to have an enduring intellectual contribution to the faith. Again, when you think of somebody like Augustine, that's somebody that's seventeen, eighteen hundred years ago that the pope Benedict said seems like he's a man of today, that his intellect is still not from the past, but still currently relevant. And so this is a these 37 guys well, they're not all guys. Right? There's there's, 30, three men and four women cover eighteen hundred years of history.

And so they're in various cultures, various eras, different spiritual traditions. So it's, really like a hall of fame, like like the saints hall of fame almost. It might might be one way to sorta to sorta think of it. We're gonna, dive into a couple of fun facts and then we'll hear from Jan. But the most recent church doctor was just a couple years ago.

Well, 2022. Pope Francis named Saint Irenaeus as a Doctor of the Church. It's funny because he's also the oldest chronologically. Like, he's the furthest back. He's now the earliest church doctor, which was actually named most recently second century.

All the others are fourth century and forward. As we said, 33 of the church doctors are men and four are women, and those first women were named, I think it was 1970. But I wanted to, first of all, say hello to Jan and just maybe ask, how important is that for Catholic women to have women among these church doctors?

Carmelite: I think it's really super important to have. We have four women doctors of the church, varying in style. And, you'll know that one of my favorite ones, one that I really love the most and ask for her intercession of is seen today's of Lisu. She is one of my favorite ones. And I think for me, it wasn't as much as her, I found theological background.

It was her simplicity of love, her little we are, there's so many things I could speak about that attracted me to Saint Teresa. And I think that was the beauty of her being a doctor of the church where maybe Aquinas and things maybe a bit too intellectual for my reading, but St. Therese's writing is more sentimental and emotional, which some people might not enjoy at first, but it's, it resonates absolutely resonates, especially with me. And that's why I love her little way, but she, she, I think her writings just illuminate, illuminate the faith and it really does help the church, to learn from her and to learn not just from intellectuals, but from spiritual people for for her little way or simplicity, her love. So, yeah, it's very important.

And and long may that continue because we have four out of 37 who are females. Praise god.

Catholic Frequency: I wanna get your thoughts on that, Catholic deacon, but also that there is a beautiful diversity here in the church doctors. We have the great intellects, Augustine and Aquinas. You have the mystics. You have you have something for everybody, I think.

Jan: Yeah. And, you know, god loves variety. You know, just look at how many different types of insects there are in the world, and you'd get an idea. But, you know, this is, this is beautiful and to echo what Jan was saying, you know, Saint Therese, I think why she's most popular, my daughter, we named, my only daughter, she, her middle name is Therese and and it's because of her simplicity just to echo what Jan was saying. But, you know, the church often gets criticized probably, too much that, women don't play a significant role in the church, and they do.

And we have four doctors who are women, many, women who have been canonized as saints. And so, it's important. And if we think about the Holy Family, you know, would there the they are the Joseph and Mary and Jesus, of course, are emulating, you know, this perfect garden that that God, wants to create for us, through through family. And, and so we see women and men in, with the designation of doctors of the church and their teachings, you know, whether they're intellectual skyscrapers like Aquinas, or they're simplicity like St. Therese of Lisieux, or they're a little bit of both with, St.

Saint Teresa of Avila, you know, and her mansions. You know, there's so much richness there, and in now in our modern day, never I think have we ever needed to to go back to the doctors of the church just to reorient our heart and our mind and our and our souls that, they were extreme instruments, not just for their time, but for all of for all of time until, you know, Jesus comes again in his glory.

Catholic Frequency: There's such a rich treasure to be found by reading about the doctors. I think most people might just think, oh, that's just something for, you know, a bunch of, I don't know, people working on their doctorate to do or a bunch of intellectuals. It's really for for everybody, and there's so many of them. As we've said, the church doctors cover multiple time periods. You've got the patristic era, like this early church where Saint Augustine is, where Saint Jerome is, in time.

We've got the medieval area era. Think about, I don't know, sixth century forward. And then what they call the modern era, the last couple hundred, two hundred fifty years or so. So some of the doctors of the church were actually popes, Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Leo the Great. As we mentioned, we have some mystics, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila.

We have a polymath. Hildegard of Bingen was a composer, a scientist, a true visionary. And, most of the doctors wrote in Latin or Greek, but some wrote in their, kind of their vernacular language. Most notably, those two I mentioned, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross in Spanish. It's interesting to to look at how how long it takes sometimes for the church to recognize someone like, Saint Alphonse Liguori is a doctor of the church, and he was declared a doctor eighty four years after he died.

That was the fastest from death to doctor of anybody in the church. One of the longest waits was a guy, Saint Ephraim the Syrian. Our friend Eric loves him, and he has a little piece for us he recorded because he couldn't be with us today. Lived in the fourth century. He was declared a doctor in 1920, over fifteen hundred years after he after he died.

So very, very interesting. They first used this term, doctor of the church, in the thirteenth century. So it hasn't always been in use. It's really the last seven hundred years or so that the church has kinda formally wanted to say, hey. These people are giants among the saints, either intellectually or because of their love, because of their ability to preach.

Whatever it is, these are people absolutely worth, worth taking note of. So, of course, we have some that are in the group we call the church fathers that are also doctors, but we have some church fathers that aren't doctors. Right? We have people that are doctors that lived at a time they wouldn't even qualify to be a church father. So it's two kinda distinct groups, but there is some overlap.

It was December when they first named officially some somebody doctor of the church, and they did four together. Ambrose, Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, and remember, Ambrose baptized Augustine, Saint Jerome, and Saint Gregory the Great. All at once, four doctors of the church. And it would be three centuries before any pope named anymore. And it was another group of four, a group of people from the from the fourth century.

So I don't know, Deacon. Do you have one that's your, sort of favorite? I know it's sort of like picking what's your favorite M and M. It's hard to kinda pick, but what who would you pick out?

Jan: I I answer that question with a lot of caution. The same question that I get asked of which of my four kids is my favorite. So, you know, just before I answer that question, Saint Hildegard of Bingen, incredible in terms of talk I mean, she would stare at plants for, like, days, because she was a a botanist, but also a musician. So I know we'll get into that later, but, we have some, like, amazing, saints, as well. And not to digress, but, you know, if everyone drinks milk, then, you know, you would know and then he's not a saint, but Louis Pasteur, was the one who, found how to to, pasteurize milk so that he wouldn't, get sick.

But to answer your question around, favorite saints, now, I mean, I in terms of, the doctors, I mean, Augustine obviously, is near and dear to me. I spent five years in formation at Saint Augustine Seminary in Toronto. So just by being in seminary and named after him, you know, you do get, you do get to know him, a little bit more. And of course, St. Therese de Blasio, as I mentioned earlier, she's her I love her simplicity and, and I did a space, a series of spaces on St.

Therese of Lisieux. So I would say those two, the ones that I pray to most often. But, you know, Saint, Anthony of Padua, is another saint that's very, very close to, our family as as well. So but in you know, I would say, Augustine and Therese are the ones that are most active, in in my life, in terms of my prayer life and and within my family.

Catholic Frequency: I just wanna mention that this is the first in a series of several spaces on the church doctors. And today, we're not trying to dig into any one particular and and give anything any exhaustive overview. We're just kinda giving the overview of what is a doctor, like the 50,000 foot view of kind of all of them, and I'm gonna narrow down and talk about some of them in a little detail. But we'll have future spaces where we might pick two or three and go for an hour just sort of digging into their life and their and their writings. But I wanted to ask, you, Jan, did you have another one that sort of stands out as a favorite besides, Saint Teresa of Lisieux?

Carmelite: Saint Teresa of Lisieux and Saint Teresa of Avila, although I like St. Hildegard as well because, her appreciation of nature and how nature and creation talks to you because it does. And, and I love that. And her, her, you know, her writing is very beautiful. It's quite pretty intense, but see Teresa of Pavella, I love again, her writing, as you've mentioned, it's mostly in Spanish should you rely on translations.

But, I think for me, when I, the interior castle, when I read about the interior castle and she explained the different mansions within the soul and what's contained within each mansion. It was quite a practical thing where I could understand traveling through the different mansions of the soul, which very much resonated with me to find out how you can move to each mansion. And I would recommend everybody to read that book. But I think number one is Sensories of Lisu in particular because it's quite sad really because when she was four, her mom died and she became really withdrawn and she was picked on in school. And then she started to be in a lot of physical pain and she used to cry all the time.

It was super, super sensitive. And I can relate to that. I can relate to that. And then she was always tearful. And then I think it was like a manifestation of grace when she was staring at a statue of the blessed Virgin Mary and she was healed.

She was healed and it was her smile, which was most notable. And all this sort of simple little things are little because she wasn't well known like our family and the convent, the sisters knew her until after she died. So just looking at her wee life and the tragedies that happened and, you know, she was a little queen, her dad is a little king and all these lovely small little words, small acts of love in everyday life, which really does matter. And then she, I think when we read about Saint Theresa and we read about her later when she died, also young at age 24, but her complete surrender to God's will, her complete, like a little child, she held out her arms and he picked her up as a little child. And to me, I think that's wonderful, her complete loving surrender to God.

And she was able to do that despite anything that's happening in her life. She was able to completely surrender and such a sense of soul that now, even now when people read her, her poems, her writings, they can completely understand. I think it was like Saint Pope John Paul II who really enjoyed, I think Saint Pope Francis enjoys her writings as well. So there's many, many other people around that that benefit from her little way. And sometimes in in life that we do have to go back to the little things because it's the little things that meet the big things.

So I would say, sorry to digress, I would say Saint Therese of Lisieux and Saint Teresa of Avila of her explanation and her writings about the soul.

Catholic Frequency: Yeah. I think it was John Paul the second who declared Saint Teresa of Lisieux a doctor of the church. I think that was 1997, '19 '90 '8, somewhere around there. She was the youngest and the shortest lived of all the doctors. We mentioned earlier that Saint Alphonsus Liguori had the shortest period from his death to being declared a doctor.

He also lived the longest. He lived to be 90 years old. Well, that first four that we talked about, we talked about go ahead, Deacon.

Jan: Oh, I was just gonna say, yeah, Liguori also, was credited for, his devotion to the rosary, I believe. Right?

Catholic Frequency: Yes. There's some there's some great quotes from him on the rosary. Absolutely. I don't I don't have those in front of me.

Jan: Yeah. Okay.

Catholic Frequency: So the first four, as we mentioned, were Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory. And then the next four, there were doctors of the church in the fifteen hundreds. So this is think about this. Only four doctors of the church were named before the Protestant revolution. About forty years after that, we get the next group named Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, Saint Basil The Great, Saint Gregory Of Nansiensis, always hope I'm saying that right, and Saint John Chrysostom, all named sort of as a a group.

Saint Basil and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, they're very, very, very good friends. They're also church fathers, and there's all these not just church fathers, but then there's groups of the church fathers. Right? There's Cappadocian fathers. There's some other categories of fathers.

So Saint Basil and Saint Gregory, very close friends. And, and all the ones in this kinda group, remember, this is sort of in the time the church is struggling with defending against, you know, doctrines that really trying to formally define the doctrine of the nature of Christ and the Trinity, and there's heresies going on, there's Arianism going on. So all four of this group is basically, their work is defending, the Nicene Creed, the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, and and all of that, stuff that was, you know, such a controversy at at that time.

Jan: Yeah. I would say, you know, if we if we think about the doctors of the church, there are there are I always there are themes in terms of which, they all share, you know, they're they're combating heresy like what you've mentioned there Shannon, you know, Aaronism, Historianism, Pelagianism and some of those other isms that have not gone away, you know, they very much exist today, and, and so we always go back, to the doctors, to help us or reorient ourselves. You know, the other sort of prevailing that, theme that transcends, all of the doctors is, you know, their reliance on scripture and their how much they've immersed themselves in understanding scripture and their love for the scripture as well. So you'll you'll see that sort of commentary across all the doctors. And, and, you know, they to your earlier comment, you know, there's they have come from diverse backgrounds and, you know, their their paths to holiness, are are very unique and distinct just as it is for all of us as well.

And so so yeah, so you know, they the doctors of the church, I think, why we don't see mass, titles being given is because the church has to really spend time understanding, their teachings, their way of life, the impact that it has, to the Church and to the faithful. And I'm sure we will see more doctors in the Church. I don't know if it'll be in my lifetime, but we don't know right now if the Vatican is looking at other saints and their works and, and then contemplating whether or not they should be a doctor of the church. It's great that we've just had two, there. But yeah, those that second cohort of doctors are really important for us.

I mean, they all are, but I mean, it was the timing was of significance because of all the heresy and the attacks on on on the church.

Catholic Frequency: Yeah. When I was doing my research from this, I watched a video from Bishop Barron of which I took that little clip we played earlier. And he said that, what happened with with his most recent doctor, Saint Irenaeus, that the French Bishops Conference proposed this idea of making him a doctor because he was a Bishop of Lyon. And so the Vatican wanted to hear from the other bishops conferences, you know, usually they're in The United States, it's just the bishops in The United States because there's a couple hundred of them. But in smaller places, it's it's groups smaller groups of countries.

And he said that when it was first brought to the attention of The United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops, a lot of them it's kinda funny. We're like, I thought he already was. Like, he's so revered. He's so, foundational to a lot of, theology that, some actual bishops were like, isn't he already a doctor? So there's this, beautiful view here of of the Vatican wanting to not just take what the French bishops wanted, but to sorta pull the other bishops throughout the world.

Sort of that unity of the church before the pope just makes a declaration. The pope checked with other bishops as as it should be. So those are kind of an interesting interesting story. Well, there's only a few times when there when there's been a declaration of more than one at one time. The first time we talked about in the December, the second group of four, then we go into some sort of just popes picking people, and Thomas Aquinas was named a doctor in 1567.

Now this is a long time after he died. This was three hundred or so years after he died. Then it was Saint Bonaventure. And, interesting, I didn't know this, they both died in the same year. They both died in December.

A quick digress, Deacon. I just thought you what you said about there'll be more doctors, that bishop Aaron said that he hopes one day cardinal Henry Newman would be, a doctor of the church. And you could also make the case that Pope Benedict with his voluminous writings and his role as a theologian. Some people think the greatest theologian in the last one hundred years might be one as well. Of course, you'd have to be declared a saint first.

But,

Jan: Yeah. I I would say, yeah. I I would agree. There are many priests and deacons, that I had have encountered, that have been in priestly ministry for a very long time, and in and been permanent deacons for a long time, so they're, you know, they're much older than I am. And when I asked them about their journey to priesthood or the permanent diaconate, it's it's quite surprising how many I have encountered that they've said it was because of Pope, Pope Benedict, and his and his teachings.

Henry, I think he's, is he a saint now? Is he canonized? I can't remember. He was just canonized,

Catholic Frequency: wasn't he?

Jan: Or he's always been canonized.

Catholic Frequency: I think so.

Jan: I'll I'll check. I think so. Yeah. I was I was in Toronto yesterday, and, I saw, his eminence, Emeritus, Cardinal Collins. And, Henry Newman is, wonderful, is dear and dear to him, as well.

So I and, you know, His Eminence, Collins, loves literature. And so he speaks so much about, Henry Newman. So I I wouldn't be surprised that those two, at some point in time, will be, will be doctors.

Catholic Frequency: Was it long ago, October 2019, John Henry Newman was declared a saint. So it's, pretty recent. Yeah. Saint Bonaventure named a doctor right after Aquinas. He's called the Seraphic Doctor.

He was a, a Franciscan and, wrote a mystical had some mystical writings. I never knew who Saint Bonaventure was. I growing up, there was a Saint Bonaventure like cemetery, you know, in town where everybody that died was kinda buried, and so I always knew the name. But, once you it's always great to, like, dig into history just just like I've just started reading a confessions for the first time by Saint Augustine. Again, it's something you hear about.

You hear about it a lot. But when you finally say, okay, I'm actually gonna dig into this thing. It really is is such a again, the church has such rich rich treasures awaiting us to just go out there and, and start looking like a like a guy on the beach, you know, with the metal detector, you know, looking for the gold coins in the sand or whatever. There's there's a lot of gold coins in the sand. Don't have to go very far to find some just incredible stuff.

We could spend our whole lives reading about these people and studying on these people. After Bonaventure and Aquinas, kind of in the same same time frame or so, are named, they'll go over a century before the church in the seventeen twenties names some more. So it's interesting in a period of about ten years, there were three different doctors named and there were three different popes that named them. There was a lot of turnover there in the chair of Saint Peter. Anselm of Canterbury, Isidore of Seville, and Peter Chrysologists were doctors named in the seventeen twenties.

And Leo the Great, also that same later in that same century, Pope Leo the Great, the one that went out. And we don't know what he said, but he convinced Attila the Hun not to destroy Rome, one of the great mysteries. Did he beg him? Did he pay him? Did he say, you know, god's gonna strike you down?

We'll have to, maybe we'll find maybe we'll find that out one day. Then we get to the nineteenth century, and and there was a flurry of doctors in that hundred year time frame, nine of them. So there'd never been that many in a hundred years. Names you know, Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Peter Damian, Alphonse Ligurie, we talked about him earlier, Francis de Sales. There's two Cyrils, Cyril of Alexandria and Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint Bede The Venerable.

Then we move into the twentieth century, and that is the one hundred year period where the most doctors of the church were named. Nineteen twenty, it's Ephraim the Syrian who was a deacon. That's the guy that went the longest from his death in the fourth century to being declared a doctor over fifteen hundred years. Saint John of the Cross, Albert the Great, Anthony of Padua, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena. I think those two are both in, on the at the same time in 1970, I believe it was.

And in this century, in the February, Benedict named two doctors of the church, Saint John of Avila and Hildegard of Bingen. And Pope Francis' name too, Gregory of Nowrech, ten years ago, and Irenaeus, as we mentioned, which his name actually means peacemaker, which I thought was was kind of interesting. So there has been a lot of them named lately. There's been four in the first twenty five years of this century. If they kept that pace, it would be more than they've ever named in a hundred years.

So we'll just have to wait and see how it, how it plays out. This is a question to both of you, Jan and Catholic Geek, and is there somebody that stands out as as has beautiful writings that isn't a doctor that you'd love to see? Or I know, Deacon, you talked about cardinal Newman. Anybody else?

Jan: Jen, do you wanna go? Or No. I like Saint Saint Francis of Assisi, for sure. You know, but I and he was a deacon as well, but that was, it was a choice that he really felt that he didn't want to be a priest. He really felt unworthy.

And so, and and Saint Gianna Barreta Mola, I I like I like her story, and, and I think there's, there's there might be something there. I mean, again, I don't know their criteria in all in all detail in terms of how the church, chooses them. But I think, you know, what they have done, and their witness to the faith, very profound, I think, you know, it still hasI mean, saints are still, you know, they still play an active role, an important role in the church. But, those would be the two that I would think. But I mean, I'd have to ponder on that a little bit

Catholic Frequency: more. Alright. Well I

Carmelite: think for

Catholic Frequency: Go ahead. I'm sorry. Sorry.

Carmelite: No. No. It's okay. I think for me, there's so many. But, again, I I wouldn't know if they're worthy of becoming a doctor, but such as an and this isn't a particular scene I speak about very often, but being clear of Assisi, whom I really, I really love as well, especially, you know, you see her with the monstrous defeating, through God's love.

So seek clear of Assisi is one that, her writing, she's had a few different, writings to Saint Agnes of Prague, which, are very interesting. So possibly there's a sort of mystical insight, into her. So possibly St. Clair of Assisi as well.

Jan: I think, Shannon, too, there's, they when they, referred when I was doing some research, they they grouped them in eastern and Western. Did you come across that in your research too?

Catholic Frequency: Yeah. There are 28 of the 37 doctors are from the West, and nine are, from the East. Yeah.

Jan: It's I thought that was interesting. I'm I'm gonna do a little bit more research around why, I mean, is it just really more from where they came from? Or but, I'm gonna I'm gonna explore that a little bit more.

Catholic Frequency: Yeah. This is the first in a series we'll be, doing, ongoing, probably every other week maybe, And we'll continue to sorta dig into this, not because we're experts, but because we're researching and we're all journeying together to learn more about the Doctors of the Saints. So I wanna welcome a Carmelite who requested the microphone. How are you?

Speaker 4: Doing well. Thanks be to God. Wanted to let you know that, a Carmelite whom I know, who for many years taught at the Traiciona Monroe, He prepared the pacificio, which is the formal request, and rationale for, making a doctor of the church or making a, preparing a decree that one of our, eminent teachers be declared a doctor of the church. He was the one who prepared the positsio for the doctorate of Saint Therese of Lisieux. And he also prepared the Positio for the Montfort Fathers, that Saint Louis de Montfort be declared a doctor of the church.

He told me that this was something that Saint Paul II, John Paul II, greatly desired and, was unable to live to see its day, the prep the presentation of that, Posizio. But there has been this work by the de Montfort fathers, to, prepare a request, a formal request to the church that Saint Louis de Montfort be declared a doctor of the church, which, gosh, I'm just sitting here looking at, his collected works on my bookshelf, and, you know, if if you've studied his collected works, they're massive. Another, recent request that has been made by the Discouse Carmelite order, not one of our fryers on behalf of another order, but, last year, the Plazitio was presented to Saint, not saint. He's not a saint yet, but was presented to the Holy See, that, Edith Stein be declared a doctor of the church. That happened last April 2024, during assembly of, Discouse Carmelite nuns who were invited to go to the Vatican to meet pope Francis while the nuns, representatives from all around the world were gathered to work on legislation, they did go and have an audience, with the holy father.

And at that time, the positsio was presented to the holy father on behalf of the Discouse Carmelite Order for, the declaration of Edith Stein as a doctor of the church. This is another, doctorate that was desired by Saint John Paul two. It's not a surprise that he would be very pro Edith Stein, he knew her work well, but, this is, the other presentation that we've made. So, there's still hope. Hope rings eternal.

And, between Edith Stein or Louis de Montfort or other doctors that have been prepared, physios that have been prepared by other religious congregations. There's there's still hope for more doctors to come. Thanks.

Jan: Well, I wonder if Edith Stein would be the would she be the first American, doctor? Or is there is there?

Speaker 4: Edith Stein is German.

Jan: Oh, German. Okay. So there are no, I don't believe there are any. I guess they're all, European and

Speaker 4: To the best of my knowledge. Correct.

Catholic Frequency: Yeah. Yeah. There there are no

Speaker 4: I mean, unless unless you take someone from the new world America, of centuries past, and I can't even think of anyone who fits that bill either.

Catholic Frequency: Interesting. Anybody else before, Carmelai, that stands out that maybe you just think would be worthy of it? Not that you know that one of these I won't try to say that word. One of these things have been prepared. Anybody stand out in your mind is is just a great writer?

Speaker 4: Oh my gosh. Among the carnalites, they're fabulous writers. The reason that, Saint Therese was declared a doctor of the church was not because she had tomes and tomes of theology. What the Carmelites were able to impress upon the Holy See, and this was something that had been, desired by many around the world. And it really to, in order to declare someone an eminent teacher, eminent doctrine, eminent teacher, is what, is the first and first first and foremost, criteria criterion that must be met.

There were many who desired not only, the this declaration and this decree on behalf of Saint Therese of Lisieux, but even sent, centuries. I shouldn't say centuries. Well, yes, centuries before. There was a worldwide acclaim that Teresa of Avila should be declared a doctor of the church, and previous popes have said, well, she is as good as a doctor of the church. And it wasn't until, as we know, 1975 that that actually took place.

And Teresa was the first. She and Catherine were not declared at the same time. Teresa was the first. Catherine followed later in the month. When I think of who we have in the church, say, in the last hundred years, for example, who has, been such an eminent teacher, who has put forward, a totally new doctrine like Therese did, for example.

There's there are very few who I think, fit that category in my in my thinking. There are some marvelous teachers. Hans Urs von Balthazar, for example, comes to mind. I definitely agree with, the suggestion of John Henry Newman. But did they present something new?

And that's that's one of the biggest things in terms of making doctors of the church. Number one, is their teaching imminent? Is it seen around the world? Is there an imminent teaching? But is it a new teaching?

Something that hasn't been expressed before? Founded in the gospel, rooted in the gospel, of course, but is it new? That's the issue. Because if somebody else has already taught that, then they're just presenting, pardon the expression, the same old thing. So that's that's one of the things that we need to be looking at.

I can see that definitely with Louis de Montfort. I can see that definitely with Edith Stein. But there aren't too many others that I can think of.

Catholic Frequency: Well, stay tuned. The universal church goes on. I'm sure we'll, we'll find out who the next one will be at some at some point. We have just about ten or fifteen minutes to go, so I wanna encourage anybody else who'd like to request the microphone to please do so. Our friend Eric was not able to be with us today.

He's traveling, but he has an amazing affinity for Saint Ephraim the Syrian. Now this is one of the ones I'd never heard about. Yeah. I might have heard it. Just didn't retain the name.

It's not one of these names you hear all the time. Right? Like Augustine, Aquinas. And so I've I've been talking to him about what makes this guy so great. And, he's hailed as the harp of the Holy Spirit.

So we're gonna just do a little bit on him before we wrap up, and then when we pick up next time, we'll we'll go more into the life of each person. But since Eric was not able to be here with us today, he, I asked him if he'd record something, which he did. So let's let him tell us a little bit about Saint Ephraim the Syrian.

Speaker 5: Saint Ephraim of Syria, born around AD three zero six, died AD three seventy three. Deacon and Doctor of the Church. Saint Ephraim was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1920 by Pope Benedict the fifteenth. Saint Ephraim was renowned for his holiness as a teacher of prayer and dispenser of great wisdom to the faithful, but he is best known today for his theological works and liturgical influences, His use of beauty to reveal great mysteries and truth, even while opposing certain heresies of his time, was renowned, and many have referred to him as the harp of the Holy Spirit. The hymns he composed were filled with doctrinal teachings and were written to guide the fledgling Catholics of the time in the truths of the faith.

Saint Ephraim's main instruction regarded Christ's human and divine natures. An example of this being from Saint Ephraim's spiritual psalter. The father exclaimed, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Heed him. Thus, he spoke of the son, who is undivided from the glory of the divinity.

For the Father and the Son, together with the Holy Spirit, are one nature, one force, one essence, and one kingdom. And Mary was called the mother of God by His Son in the flesh, who was undivided from the glory of His divinity. For one is God who has appeared to the world in the flesh. His glory proclaimed his divine nature, which is from the Father, and his body proclaimed his human nature, which was from Mary. Both of his natures converged and were united in a single hypostasis.

He was the only begotten of the father and also the only begotten of Mary. And he who divides the hypostasis in him will also be separated from his kingdom, and he who conjoins his natures will be deprived of the life that is of him. He who denies that Mary gave birth to God will not see the glory of his divinity, And he who denies that he was clothed in sinless flesh will receive neither salvation nor the life which was granted through his body. His very deeds give witness, and his divine strength teach the contemptuous that he is true God, and his sufferings give proof that he is true man. The earliest external witness to Saint Ephraim and his literary activity is provided by Saint Jerome in his book on famous men written in March, '19 years after Saint Ephraim's death.

Here, he tells us that Ephraim, a deacon of the Church of Edessa, wrote a great deal in the Syriac language. He attained such distinction that his writings are read in some churches after the scriptural elections. I have read a work of his on the Holy Spirit, which someone had translated from Syriac into Greek, and even in translation I could recognize the acumen of a lofty intellect. To many people, St. Ephraim the Syrian will be best known for the beautiful prayer attributed to him, which is prayed during the Lenten season in Eastern Catholic rites.

O Lord and master of my life, keep from me the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter. Instead, grant me your servant the spirit of wholeness of being, humble mindedness, patience, and love. Oh, Lord and King, grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my neighbor, for you are blessed now and forever and forever. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Oh, God, cleanse me of my sins, and have mercy on me.

I have sinned without number. Forgive me, O Lord. Amen. In the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, his feast day is June 9. In the traditional Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, his feast day is June 18.

Saint Ephraim the Syrian, pray to God for us.

Catholic Frequency: Thank you, Eric. I do think we'll wrap up here with a quote from Saint Ephraim the Syrian. Blessed is he who has appeared to our human race under so many metaphors, for he clothed himself in our language that he might refresh us by the wealth of his parables. And as he sought us in all things, he became visible to us in all things, Saint Ephraim the Syrian. Well, thank you for coming to our very first space on the Doctors of the Church.

Again, this was kind of just a big overview, and I wanted to get some final comments, go around the horn here, and just see if you had any final thoughts from the Kingdom of Scotland, Jan.

Carmelite: The Kingdom of Scotland. Yes. I wanted to actually, agree with Carmel. She mentioned Saint Laud of Montfort in his writing. For me, he would be a really strong candidate for a doctrine of the church because because of his contribution to theology, but also has spirituality because his devotion to Mary, and all his writings, which emphasize going to Mary as a pathway to Christ.

And I refer back to one of my most favorite books, which is the secret of the rosary, which is a magnificent book by Saint Louis de Montfort. So, it's making me go and and read a little bit more about him after that. So, that was really, really good thought from Carmelites, but it's been a really great space. Thank you so much. It's been great learning a little bit more about the doctors of the church and how they became doctors and what contributions that they made to the church specifically in new ways.

So thank you very much for hosting. I look forward to the next one.

Catholic Frequency: And final comments from the Commonwealth of Canada, Catholic Deacon.

Jan: Yes. You know, I would say it's it's beautiful that we we learn about the the doctors of the church, and, you know, it's the doctors of the church, are antidotes to reoccurring heresies that still exist today. And so it's great that, that we're we're going to explore and dive in to some of the doctors of the church and how their teachings still are very relevant and will guide us to help us defend the faith, but also grow, in holiness as well. So so thank you. This has been wonderful.