Defenders of the Faith

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 45, 25 November 1925, Page 57

Defenders of the Faith

When St. Peter Canisius was recently declared by the Pop© to be not only a saint „ but also a Doctor of the Church, he was \ added .to that small, company of illustrious * men who have adorned the Church of God not only by their heroic sanctity, but also by their eminent learning. Three things are laid down as necessary before any one can be called “doctor of the Church.” They are eminent learning, notable sanctity of life, and proclamation by the Church. The last means a decree by the Supreme Pontiff or of a general council. In the west during the middle ages the Doctors of the Church numbered only four, St. Gregory the Great, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome. hone Boniface VIII in 1298 ordered their leasts to ho kept as doubles throughout the Church. The figures of the four Latin Doctors constantly recur in medieval art. In the East three Fathers of the Church were venerated as Doctors, St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil, and St. Gregory Naziarizen, and as early as the ninth century their .feast was obligatory throughout the Eastern Empire. Analogy led the Western Church to venerate the four Greek Doctors', adding very properly to the original three the name of St. Athanasius. No additions were made to this list until the latter half of the 16th century, when also the feasts of the Greek Doctors were elevated to the rank of doubles. Of the 25 saints now venerated as Doctors of the Church, eight are Eastern and 17 Western. They include five Benedictines, a AQominican, a Franciscan, a Redemptorist, and a Jesuit. The following is a list of those added since the 16th century, with the dates of their elevation: St. Thomas Aquinas (1568), the great Dominican philosopher and theologian. St. Bonaventure (1578), Franciscan Car-dinal-Bishop of Albano. St. Anselm (1720), Archbishop of Canterbury. St. Isidore (1722), Bishop."of Seville, and the saviour of Latin and Christian culture in Spain during the seventh, century Visigothic invasions. St. Peter Chrysologus (1729), ninth century Bishop of: Ravenna, and-powerful opponent of Monophysitism. St. Leo the Great (1754), who as Pope in the fifth century defined the doctrine of the

Hypostatic union in an encyclical known as the Tome of Leo. St. Peter Damian (1828), Cardinal Bishop of Ostia in 1057, great reformer of the Church in Italy. St. Bernard (1830). St. Hilary of Poitiers (1851), the Western champion of the Nicene Faith against Arianism. St. Alphonsus Liguori and St. Francis de Sales (1871). St. Cyril of Alexandria (1883), zealous opponent of Paganism, Novatians, Nestorians, and A nans until his death in 444. St. Cyril of Jerusalem (1883), who died in 336 after a life spent in defending the Nicene faith. St. John Damascene (1883), the last of the