What Are Doctors of the Church?

What Does It Mean to Be a Doctor of the Church?

The title of “Doctor of the Church” is bestowed on certain saints for their skillful defense of the Faith. While they are known as Doctors, the name has no connection with medical science. Rather, in this context the term “doctor” refers to a learned man who is also a great teacher. We still use this term in a similar manner for university professors who are called “Dr. So-and-so.” This is because they have earned a “Ph.D.” or “doctorate” degree. A Doctor of the Church is therefore one who has plumbed the depths of theological mysteries and is recognized as a great teacher of the Faith for all Catholic generations. Holy Mother Church imparts great authority to the writings and teachings of these Doctors, and they serve as a kind of benchmark of orthodoxy.

The first saints given this title, by Pope Boniface XIII on September 20, 1295, were St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Gregory the Great. The next added was St. Thomas Aquinas, and since then the list has grown to include several dozen others.

In his bull making this proclamation, Boniface XIII explicitly makes a link between there being four Evangelists and these four great Church Doctors. Four takes into account the cardinal compass points (north, south, east, west) and recalls that Christ commanded us to spread the Gospel to all “four corners” of the world. Yet this connection to four even goes back to a heavenly vision which the prophet Ezekiel received. “In the midst thereof the likeness of four living creatures … there was the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side of all four: and the face of an ox, on the left side of all four: and the face of an eagle over all four” (see Chapter 1). St. John recounts a similar vision in his Book of the Apocalypse. In the second century, St. Irenaeus argued against the gnostics’ multiplicity of [false] gospels by relying on these passages as an apologetic for why there are four and only four Evangelists with their corresponding four canonical Gospels.

After Pope Boniface’s proclamation, the Catholic Church in the East also developed a tradition of having four great Church Fathers, namely: St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. John Chrysostom. When St. John Lateran, the Cathedral of Rome and Mother of all Christian Churches, was renovated, statues of the four great Western Doctors and four great Eastern Doctors were placed at top to the left and right of Our Lord, St. John the Apostle and St. John the Baptist. Then when the modern St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican was being built in the baroque style, great statues of four Doctors were placed holding up the cathedra of St. Peter beneath the Holy Ghost. These four are St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Athanasius and St. John Chrysostom – two from the West and two from the East.

The Church honors Doctors in the Breviary with a special antiphon for the Magnificat at Vespers, incorporating the name of the saint in it.[1] At Mass, the Gospel reading is typically Matthew 5:13-19, where the Church ascribes to the Doctors the words of Our Lord: “You are the salt of the earth.” Prior to the 1962 Missal, the Creed was recited on the feast days of Doctors of the Church, in recognition for their adherence and defense of the Faith. As such, the term “Doctor of the Church” is not only an honor but one with practical changes in how a saint is honored in the Church’s public worship.

The 30 Traditional Doctors of the Church:

Why Women Cannot Be Doctors of the Church

Since Vatican II, the attacks on Traditional Catholic views and beliefs include far more than just the Tridentine Mass. Radical changes to the Breviary, the liturgical year, the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, the process of canonization[2] and more have occurred. Hardly any aspect of the Faith remains untouched by modernists who always seek to change anything and everything, even just for the sake of change itself.

Amongst these changes is the inclusion of several women amongst the list of the Doctors of the Church. Such a change is not only opposed to the previous tradition but more importantly it is in contradiction to Scripture.

While no faithful Catholic would question the orthodoxy, holiness, or usefulness of the writings of St. Teresa, St. Catherine, St. Thérèse, or St. Hildegard, giving them the title “Doctor of the Church” runs in direct contradiction to the teaching of St. Paul when he wrote, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence” (2 Timothy 2:12).

Catholics who seek to uphold the Faith and adhere to Tradition should refrain from honoring any of the post-Vatican II Doctors with the title, just as it is also prudent to refrain from prefacing the names of post-1983 canonized saints with the title of “Saint” on account of the dubious changes in the process of canonizations. Seek to live out the Catholic Faith in the same manner (i.e. the Mass) but also with the same beliefs as our grandfathers and their grandfathers. The Catholic Faith cannot change because God does not change. What was true in the past must be true now. Sacred Scripture is inerrant and inspired because the Holy Ghost is its primary Author. And if St. Paul’s teachings were true in the past, they must be true now. We cannot change what is of apostolic origin.

May the Doctors of the Church pray for us and for Holy Mother Church during this difficult time!

[1] The general formula for this antiphon, using the feast of St. Peter Chrysologus as an example: O excellent Doctor, luminary of the holy Church, blessed Peter Chrysologus, lover of the divine law, pray for us to the Son of God.

[2] https://catholicfamilynews.com/blog/2014/03/31/doubt-and-confusion-the-new-canonizations/