Doctor of the Church
A Doctor of the Church is a theologian from whose writings the whole Christian church is held to have derived great advantage, and to whom eminent learning and great sanctity have been attributed by a proclamation of the Pope or of an ecumenical council (although no ecumenical council has ever exercised its prerogative of proclaiming anyone a doctor of the church).The Catholic Church lists the following thirty-three Doctors of the Church; date of promotion to Doctor is listed, if available:
- St. Gregory the Great
- St. Ambrose
- St. Augustine
- St. Jerome
- St. John Chrysostom (Eastern Orthodox)
- St. Basil (Eastern Orthodox)
- St. Gregory Nazianzus (Eastern Orthodox)
- St. Athanasius (Eastern Orthodox)
- St. Thomas Aquinas - 1568
- St. Bonaventure - 1588
- St. Anselm - 1720
- St. Isidore - 1722
- St. Peter Chrysologus - 1729
- St. Leo the Great - 1754
- St. Peter Damian - 1828
- St. Bernard - 1830
- St. Hilary of Poitiers - 1851
- St. Alphonsus Liguori - 1871
- St. Francis de Sales - 1877
- St. Cyril of Alexandria - 1883 (Eastern Orthodox)
- St. Cyril of Jerusalem - 1883 (Eastern Orthodox)
- St. John Damascene - 1883 (Eastern Orthodox)
- The Venerable Bede - 1899
- St. Ephraem - 1920 (Eastern Orthodox)
- St. Peter Canisius - 1925
- St. John of the Cross - 1926
- St. Robert Bellarmine - 1931
- St. Albertus Magnus - 1931
- St. Anthony of Padua - 1946
- St. Lawrence of Brindisi - 1959
- St. Teresa of Avila - 1970
- St. Catherine of Siena - 1970
- St. Therese of Lisieux - 1997
