Concept
Doctor of the Church
Overview
Doctor of the Church (Latin: doctor "teacher"), also referred to as Doctor of the Universal Church (Latin: Doctor Ecclesiae Universalis), is a title given by the Catholic Church to saints recognized as having made a significant contribution to theology or doctrine through their research, study, or writing.
As of 2025, the Catholic Church has named 38 Doctors of the Church. Of these, the 18 who died before the Great Schism of 1054 are also held in high esteem by the Eastern Orthodox Church, although it does not use the formal title Doctor of the Church.
Among the 38 recognised Doctors, 29 are from the West and nine from the East; four are women and 34 are men; one is an abbess, three are nuns, and one is a tertiary associated with a religious order; two are popes, 19 are bishops, 13 are priests, and one is a deacon; and 28 are from Europe, three are from Africa, and seven are from Asia. More Doctors (twelve) lived in the fourth century than any other; eminent Christian writers of the first, second, and third centuries are usually referred to as the Ante-Nicene Fathers. The shortest period between death and nomination was that of Alphonsus Liguori, who died in 1787 and was named a Doctor in 1871 – a period of 84 years; the longest was that of Irenaeus, which took more than 18 centuries.
Some other churches have similar categories with various names.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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And this custom, coming, I suppose, from apostolical tradition (like many other things which are held to have been handed down under their actual sanction, because they are preserved throughout the whole Church, though they are not found either in their letters, or in the Councils of their successors),--this most wholesome custom, I say, according to the holy Cyprian, began to be what is called amended by his…
of Hippo Augustine, Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy
States what Doctor of the Church is; the author is tied to Doctor of the Church in the knowledge graph.
As in the ordinary day, morning is the beginning, and evening the close of day, so, their knowledge of the primordial being of things is called morning knowledge; and this is according as things exist in the Word. But their knowledge of the very being of the thing created, as it stands in its own nature, is termed evening knowledge; because the being of things flows from the Word, as from a kind of primordial…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
States what Doctor of the Church is; the author is tied to Doctor of the Church in the knowledge graph.
While the Church, in the strict sense of the word, is the "communion of saints" and therefore _one_, yet outwardly it has become divided, in the course of time, into many different churches, denominations, and sects. It contains Four Great Branches: _The Greek Catholic Church_; _The Roman Catholic Church_; _The Evangelical Lutheran Church_; and _The Reformed Churches_, comprising a great number of denominations and…
Martin Luther, An Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism
States what Doctor of the Church is.
Philosophers who discussed Doctor of the Church
Related ideas
- Eastern Orthodox Church
- Francisco Suárez
- Geneva
- Holy See
- Hildegard of Bingen
- Ambrose
- Etymologiae
- Isidore of Seville
- Albertus Magnus
- Jerome
- Jesuits
- John the Evangelist
- Latin
- Catechism of the Catholic Church
- Augustine of Hippo
- Heresy
- Thomas Aquinas
- Anselm of Canterbury
- Pope John Paul II
- Jean Gerson
- Pope Paul VI
- Roger Bacon
- Spain
- St. Louis
Place in the tradition
Part of Platonism.