Q&A with Fr John Flader: This week – Doctors of the Church – just who are they?
Can you please explain what Doctors of the Church are? How does someone come to be named a Doctor and how many are there?
By Fr John Flader
First of all, as you are probably aware, the word “doctor” in this sense does not refer to the person who treats your flu. Nor, of course, the one who fixes the ailments of the Church.
The word comes from the Latin docere, meaning “to teach”, so that a “doctor” in Latin is a teacher.
In order for someone to receive the title Doctor of the Church there are three requirements: they must be eminent in doctrine, with a high degree of holiness, and be declared a Doctor by the Church.
Only canonised saints can receive the title, so that so illustrious a writer of the early Church as Origen, who was never canonised, is not a Doctor of the Church.
No martyr has ever been declared a Doctor, even though some, like St Irenaeus and St Cyprian, contributed much to the Church by their abundant and eminent teaching.
It may be that the fact of being a martyr was esteemed so highly that no further title could add to their
glory.
While their doctrine must be eminent, it is not required that they have produced copious writings. For example, while St Augustine and St John Chrysostom left numerous writings, others like St Catherine of Siena and St Therese of Lisieux wrote much less.
It is up to the Pope to declare a Doctor of the Church. The first one to do so was Pope Boniface VIII who, in 1295, proclaimed the four original Western Doctors of the first six centuries: Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome and Pope Gregory the Great.
Corresponding to these were four original Eastern Doctors of the same period: Saints John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus and Athanasius.
Although they had been considered as Doctors early on, Pope Pius V officially recognised them in 1568.
Pope Pius V also declared his fellow Dominican St Thomas Aquinas a Doctor in 1568, and Pope Sixtus V added St Bonaventure in 1588. The number of Doctors remained at ten until the 18th century, when the number was progressively increased up to the 20th century.
At present there are 33 Doctors, the last three to be proclaimed being the only women. Pope Paul VI proclaimed St Teresa of Avila and St Catherine of Siena Doctors of the Church in 1970, and Pope John Paul II added St Therese of Lisieux in 1997.
Other Doctors from the 4th and 5th centuries were Saints Ephraem, Hilary, Cyril of Jerusalem, Cyril of Alexandria, Pope Leo the Great and Peter Chrysologus.
From the next five centuries are Saints Isidore of Seville, Bede the Venerable and John Damascene.
From the 11th century are Saints Peter Damian and Anselm.
Doctors of the 12th and 13th centuries are Saints Bernard of Clairvaux, Anthony of Padua, Albert the Great, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas.
St Catherine of Siena lived in the 14th century.
The turbulent Counter-Reformation period of the 16th and early 17th centuries gave us such great Doctors as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Peter Canisius, Robert Bellarmine, Lawrence of Brindisi and Francis de Sales.
The last two doctors are St Alphonsus Liguori, who lived in the 18th century, and St Therese of Lisieux in the 19th.
Of the 33 Doctors, 25 are from the Western Church and eight from the East.
Of those in Holy Orders, 14 were secular and 16 religious. They included two popes, 18 bishops, nine priests and one deacon.
Of those in religious orders, there were five Benedictines, three Carmelites, three Dominicans, three Franciscans, two Jesuits, a Cistercian and a Redemptorist.