Is There a Doctor in the House?
The Catholic Church has been blessed with her over 2000 year history and has an amazing treasury of knowledge, art, music, and so much more. This would not be possible without the Holy Spirt guiding certain people to act in a pursuit to glorify God. In the Catholic Church, there are a certain group of saints who have achieved the honor of being called a Doctor of the Church. A Doctor of the Church is any saint, whose writings or sermons benefit the Church in any age. This means that the writings or sermons can be read by anyone in any time and it still holds value and truth. Although these authors are not infallible, the Church still holds they have been inspired by the Holy Spirit to write. As of today, the Catholic Church has 33 Doctors, twenty-five from the western church and eight from the east. Eighteen were bishops, twenty-nine were priests, one deacon, two nuns, and one lay woman. There are four “great doctors of the west” and they are Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Pope Gregory the Great. There are also four “great doctors of the east” and they are Sts. John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Athanasius. The three woman doctors are Sts. Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and Thérèse de Lisieux. So if you are ever interested in discovering more about our faith, or have wanted to read something written by a saint, the best place to start would be reading from a Doctor of the Church. Two great books to start off would be St. Augustine’s Confessions and St. Thérèse’s The Little Way for Everyday. |
