Doctors of the Church

The title “Doctor of the Church” is an official honor that is bestowed by the Pope in recognition of the outstanding contribution a person has made to the understanding and interpretation of the sacred Scriptures and the development of Christian doctrine.

As of 2009, there are thirty-three male and female Doctors of the Catholic Church who hail from all ages of the Church’s history. Of these, three are women (Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Therese of Lisieux) and twenty-four are quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (The eight who are not quoted are Saints Ephraem, Isidore, “the Venerable” Bede, Albert the Great, Anthony of Padua, Peter Canisius, Robert Bellarmine, and Lawrence of Brindisi).

There are three requirements that must be fulfilled by a person in order to merit being included in the ranks of the “Doctors of the Catholic Church”:

1) holiness that is truly outstanding, even among saints;
2) depth of doctrinal insight; and
3) an extensive body of writings which the church can recom­mend as an expression of the authentic and life-giving Catholic Tradition.



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