She is one of only four female Doctors of the Church, a mystic from the age of 3 who grew into an abbess, author, composer, preacher, and advisor. We are talking about St. Hildegard of Bingen (feast day Sept. 17).
“The Angelic Doctor” is the title given to one of the most gifted teachers and theologians in the whole history of the Catholic Church: St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast day is Jan. 28.
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.
Saint Albert the Great (feast day: Nov. 15), Bishop and Doctor of the Church, was hailed in his day as “Albertus Magnus,” “Doctor Universalis,” “Doctor Expertus,” and, quite simply, “the teacher of everything there is to know.” He was a wonder of his age.
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.
