On his feast day (Sept. 30), many we remember the instruction of St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church, to “Read the divine Scriptures constantly; never let the sacred volume fall from your hand.”
Historians and scholars around the world are indebted to the work of their patron saint: St. Bede the Venerable, priest and Doctor of the Church (feast day: May 25) and one of the most prolific and influential Catholic writers of the Middle Ages.
"Those who maintain 'There was a time when the Son was not' rob God of His Word, like plunderers." So said St. Athanasius of Alexandria (feast day: May 2), considered the “Father of Orthodoxy” in both the Eastern and Western Churches.
Known as “the Master and Restorer of Sacred Eloquence,” St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (feast day: Jan. 24) was responsible for bringing tens of thousands back to the Catholic faith during the Protestant Reformation and enriching the Church by his numerous written works.
Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church, whose feast we celebrate on Jan. 13, was a fourth-century pagan-turned-Christian who courageously defended Christ’s divinity against the Arian heretics.
“Full of the hope and joy of faith, St. Basil the Great shows us how to be true Christians," wrote Pope Benedict XVI. We celebrate this Doctor of the Church on his feast day, Jan. 2.
On Dec. 7, we celebrate the feast of St. Ambrose, one of the “original four” Doctors of the Church, along with Sts. Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome.
Saint Theophanes called his friend, St. John Damascene (feast day: Dec. 4), “Chrysorrhoas” (golden stream) due to his oratorical gifts.
Pope Benedict XVI called St. Teresa of Ávila (feast day: Oct. 15) “one of the peaks of Christian spirituality.” Noted for her writings, holiness, reforms to the Carmelite Order, and mystical visions, St. Teresa belongs to that elite group of only four female Doctors of the Church.
One of the most highly recognizable saints of the modern age, St. Thérèse of Lisieux (feast day: Oct. 1), died at 24 yet is a Doctor of the Church, sharing the designation with only four other women in Church history: Sts. Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena, and Teresa of Avila.
