DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 173, 21 July 1876, Page 8

DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH.

In eighteen centuries this title has only been conferred upon seventeen of the host of learned writers whom the Church records among her canonized saints. The last of these was St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Bishop of St. Agatha, in the kingdom of Naples, and founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Eedeemer, and of the cloistered nuns of the same name, who, by a decree of Pius IX. of the 23rd March, 1871, was placed in the same rank in the Church's Liturgy. This act of the Holy See had been solicited by no less than eight hundred and three Bishops, that is, by a large majority of the episcopate of all countries, and by twenty-five generals of religious orders, besides theological faculties and chapters. Nothing could more forcibly prove how widespread has become the influence and how great the reputation for sanctity and learning of St. Alphonsus during the eighty-nine years that have elapsed since his death. The following is a list of the Church's Doctors, arranged according to the date of their death : — A.D. 368. St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers. 373. St. Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria 379. St. Basil, Archbishop of Ceesarea 389. St. Gregory Nazianzen, Patriarch of Constantinople 397. St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan 407. St. John ChryßOstom, Patriarch of Constantinople 420. St. Jerome, Priest 430. St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo 450. St. Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Eavenna 460. St. Leo, Pope 604. St. Gregory, Pope 606 St. Isidore, Archbishop of Seville 1072. St. Peter Damian, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia 1109. St. Anßelm, Archbishop of Canterbury 1153. St. Bernard, Abbot of Citeaux 1274. St. Thomns Aquinas, O.P. 1274. St. Bonaventure, Cardinal Archbishop of Albano 1787. St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Bishop of tit. Agatha. It will be seen by this list, that of all the great canonised writers who have appeared within the last six hundred years only St. Alphonsus has as yet received the title of Doctor. — N. T. ' Freeman.'