How many fathers of the church are there

So where do we go for the truth? We need direct contact with the primary sources — that is, documents written by those who were actually involved in the events in question. Fortunately, abundant documents survive from the first eight centuries of the Church.

We refer to those who wrote them as the early Church Fathers. Scholarly tools have existed for centuries that are particularly effective at detecting forgeries and dating documents to within a few decades of when they were written. The good news is that there are thousands of documents and hundreds of writers. The bad news is that there are thousands of documents and hundreds of writers. Few of us have time to read them all. In fact, it is difficult to know where to begin. The Church has put together a collection of short selections from the Fathers in the Office of Readings.

These are the best introduction. The next step would be to read the Apostolic Fathers, the earliest of the post New Testament writings which have particular apologetic value given their proximity to the apostles. The Apostolic Fathers ca. That makes their writings easy to understand. But once we hit the middle to late second century, we run into very different kinds of writers.

Justin had been a philosopher before his conversion, while Tertullian was a lawyer. Both were deeply cultured men, and concepts from the philosophy of their day, Stoicism and Platonism, surface frequently in their work. The same is true with Fathers from the fourth-to-fifth-century Golden Age, such as St. Augustine and St. Gregory of Nyssa. So, is there any hope that the ordinary Joe or Jane can read these authors and make heads or tails of them?

Many of the most high-powered thinkers among the Fathers were also pastors. And many of their writings were originally addressed to the faithful as homilies, catechetical orations and lives of the saints. Though such writings are chock-full of insight and inspiration, they are delivered in words intended to be understood by everybody. So my advice to those wishing to sink their teeth into the rich fare provided by these later Fathers is to focus on their exegetical and catechetical writings rather than the more philosophical treatises written for a more learned audience.

What follows are a few concrete suggestions. Following the Council of Nicaea, there was a great deal of doctrinal confusion. Basil the Great responded to these heretics in the form of a short treatise that relies not on difficult philosophical concepts but on a common-sense examination of Scripture and the liturgy. He then made one of the clearest cases against sola scriptura in early Christian literature, showing that Christians had never, from the time of the apostles to his day ca.

He pointed to many liturgical traditions, such as the sacrament of chrismation known in the West as confirmation , which had always been celebrated in the Church but were not clearly and explicitly spelled out in Scripture. Lex orandi, lex credendi the law of prayer demonstrates the law of belief is a principle first clearly argued by St. Basil, available in paperback from St. In defending the divinity of Christ during the Arian crisis of the fourth century, St.

Athanasius of Alexandria had received constant support from the most famous hermit of the Egyptian desert, St. It inspired many, including Augustine, to a deeper conversion to the Gospel and even to embrace religious life.

A few centuries later, St. Benedict established a communal form of life that made him the godfather of monastic life in the West. Only a couple of generations after St. This presentation of the Fathers would not be complete without a discussion of how to break into the writings of the most famous Father of the Western Church, the great St.

Many praise Augustine, but virtually no one has read all of his works he wrote more than 4 million words! It is a spiritual reflection on his past life, written soon after his accession to the episcopate, but it takes the form of a long, extended prayer to God.

And its last few chapters ascend into the philosophical stratosphere, losing all but the heartiest astronauts. Is it to be attempted? So, where to begin? In my opinion, it is his homilies and commentaries that are perfect for everyone — meaty enough for the most experienced, but simple enough for the novice.

Editor's note: Follow the links to read in-depth biographies of each of the Church Fathers. The Church Fathers were influential theologians, bishops or scholars whose writings explained key Scriptural principles in the early Church. They were not all ordained, not all of them became saints, and they were not infallible. But they had powerful communication skills, personal holiness and doctrinal orthodoxy, so we honor them unofficially as "fathers" for their proximity to the Apostles, their explanations of how to understand and apply Scripture, and their ability to teach the Catholic faith.

They are generally divided into four categories based on when or where they lived: the Apostolic Fathers, the Greek Eastern Fathers, the Latin Western Fathers, and others such as the Desert Fathers.

The era of the Church Fathers, called the Patristic period, ended in with the death of St. John of Damascus. The Apostolic Fathers lived and wrote in the second half of the first century and the first half of the second century. They were taught by the Apostles and personally witnessed the birth of the Church. Most were martyred — crucified, beheaded, fed to the lions at the Roman colosseum, boiled in oil or burned alive.

They were the ones empowered by the Holy Spirit and who personally handed on the oral teaching of Jesus Christ, before the New Testament canon was collected in the late 4th century and then translated into Latin by a later Church Father, St. Clement, is actually mentioned in the Bible — in Philippians Before he died in about the year 96, he wrote an epistle 1 Clement calling on the Christians of Corinth to maintain harmony and order.

His letter was copied and widely read in the early Church, and it is the earliest Christian epistle outside the New Testament. En route to his martyrdom in Rome, where he was devoured by lions in the colosseum, Ignatius wrote a series of letters which we still have today. His hastily-written letters covered many topics: ecclesiology, the sacraments, the authority of bishops, and the Sabbath. He stressed the value of the Eucharist, and he coined the term "Catholic Church.

Around , Polycarp was captured and dragged to the stadium to be burned alive for not paying homage to the emperor. He shouted to the watching proconsul: "You threaten me with fire, which burns for an hour, and after a little is extinguished. But you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment What are you waiting for?

Bring forth what you will. Losing patience, his killers stabbed him to death, and so much blood flowed from his body that the fire was doused. Hilary of Poitiers. Hippolytus of Rome. Bishop of Rome; wrote The commentary of Daniel , the first orthodox Bible commentary book in Christianity history, and The Apostolic Tradition , recorded various rituals, including baptism and Eucharist.

Ignatius of Antioch. Epistolae Supposititiae. Eucharist and baptism cannot function without Bishop who has been appointed by Christ ; nothing is known of the office of Bishop prior to Ignatius; his words in letters were quoted by church fathers; his letters were widely circulated in Christian community; desire for martyrdom; on the way to martyrdom from Antioch to Rome he wrote letters to the Church of Rome, bagging them not to deprive him of impending martyrdom by intervention; greatly honored by Polycarp; Apostolic Father.

Adversus Haereses, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching. Isaac of Nineveh. Bishop of Nineveh from c ; after five months as Bishop, he retired from the see to live a life of solitude; his ascetic writings were translated into Greek, Arabic, and Ethiopic, and selected homilies into Latin;.

Isidore of Pelusium. Isidore of Seville. Bishop of Seville c ; presided the second Council of Seville and the fourth Council of Toledo , which dealt with monastic discipline, clerical education, and liturgical uniformity as well as promoted a close relation between church and state; made a great influence on the clerical scholars and the churches in Spain as well as on culture and education of west medieval Europe; his encyclopedic work Etymologiarum in 20 books was extremely popular in the Middle Age and provided valuable source for learning; his work Historia Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum was primary source for Spanish history; Doctor of the Church; the last of the Fathers of the Western Church.

Jacob of Sarug Serugh. Epistles, Homilies, Hymns. John Chrysostom. John Climacus. Ladder of Divine Ascent.

Abbot at Sinai; his ascetic work Ladder of Divine Ascent was an influential in the eastern church. John of Damascus. Julianus Pomerius.

The Contemplative Life. Julius Africanus, Sextus. Chronicles, Epistles. Justin Martyr. Leo I Leo the Great. Pope ; opposed Pelagianism while as a Roman deacon; promoted the power of central government of the Church by claiming the supremacy of Pope was from Divine and Scripture authority; a rescript by Valentinian III recognized his jurisdiction over all the Western province; the Council of Chalcedon accepted his Tome Epistola Dogmatica as a standard of orthodox Christology; his political prestige was enhanced by persuading the Hunds to withdraw and securing concessions from Vandals who took Rome ; Doctor of the Church.

Leontius of Byzantium. Contra Nestorian et Eutychianos. Lucian of Antioch. Epistles ,. Macarius of Alexandria. Macarius the Great of Egypt. Spiritual Homilies. A presbyter in Antioch; head of a Hellenic rhetorical school at Antioch; wrote the letter denouncing Paul of Samosata as a heretic. Marius Mercator. Martin of Braga. Martin of Tours. Martyios Sahdona. Book of Perfection. Maximus of Turin. Bishop of Turin; a preacher who made use of allegory; his sermons were circulated in medieval homiliaries.

Maximus the Confessor. Melitius of Antioch. Melito of Sardis. Apology, On the Pasch Peti, Pa,sca. Bishop of Sardis in Asia Minor; anti-Judaism; an supporter of Quartodeciman practice and orthodox Christology; described Christ as by nature God and Man; wrote apology addressed to emperor Marcus Aurelius; influenced Irenaeus and Tertullian. Methodius of Olympus. Bishop of Olympus in Lycia; an opponent of Origen; death in the Diocletianic persecution;. Marcus Minucius Felix.

History of Armenia. Nectarius of Constantinople. Bishop of Constantinople ; was selected by Theodosius I in to succeed Gregory of Nazianzus in the imperial see while unbaptized; became Bishop after baptism and presided over the final stage of the second Oecumenical Council.

Niceta Nicetas of Remesiana. Nilus of Ancyra. Bishop of Ancyra; a disciple of John Chrysostom and founder of a monastery near Ancyra; his letters provide information about the survival paganism.

Nonnus of Panopolis. Paraphrasis in Iohannem. Optatus of Milevis. Against the Donatists. Commonitorium , Historia adversus Paganos. Rules for the monks. Pacian of Barcelona. Epistles, Paraenesis ad Poenitentiam. Palladius of Helenopolis. For many Christians these Fathers of the Church have been extremely influential on a personal level. By reading their writings an individual gains a unique insight into the early followers of Christianity. In particular, their writings confirm what the Church has always taught and continues to teach today.

The Fathers stand as foundational pillars who always point back to Jesus Christ and show with their writings and example what it means to be a Christian. Public Domain. They are pillars of the Church and their writings are inspirational.