St. Catherine of Siena Catherine was born March 25, 1347 and died on April 29, 1380. Catherine was the 23rd child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa and was from Siena, Italy. From an early age, she made a lot of time for prayer and meditation and at the age of 18, she...
Teresa was born on March 28, 1515 and died on October 4, 1582. St. Teresa of Avila was born into the age of exploration in Spain, just two decades after Christopher Columbus opened exploration for Europe in the Americas. At the time, everything was in flux: politics,...
What is a Doctor of the Church? Before we dive into this series on four amazing female saints, it is worth examining the question: what is a Doctor of the Church? Doctor comes from the Latin word “docere” meaning “to teach." A Doctor of the Church is someone...
Today we present Part 3 of our series on the Doctors of the Church, having begun our list with Part 1, the Eight Ecumenical Doctors – four from the West and four from the East. In Part 2, we brought you the remaining eight Patristic Era Doctors. The eleven that follow...
Recently, we brought you Part 1 of our series on the Doctors of the Church, having begun our list with the so-called Eight Ecumenical Doctors - from the West - St. Ambrose (340-397), St. Jerome (345-420), St. Augustine (354-430), and Pope St. Gregory the Great...
Part 1: The 8 Ecumenical Fathers Ever since I became Catholic, I've heard the title "Doctor of the Church" tossed about... but rarely have I gotten any further in my imagination than "that means he (or she) was really important." But what does it mean to have been...