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I am continuing our series on the Doctors of the Church. The next Doctor of the Church chronologically is Saint Ephrem the Syrian who was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. Ephrem (ca. 306-373) was born in Nisibis (modern day Nesbin--a city in the Mardin Province, Turkey), probably into a Christian family. . Ephrem left Nisibis in 363. The pagan emperor Julian the Apostate had invaded Persian territory in the hope of reconquering lands that the Persians had seized after defeating the army of the Roman Empire. Instead Julian was killed in battle. After the pagan takeover of the city, the Christian population was forced to flee, and Ephrem made his way to the great center of Syriac Christianity at Edessa (a city in modern day northern Greece). He spent the last ten years of his life there. Edessa was a very cosmopolitan city both of learning and religious diversity. Ephrem thrived in this environment. Most of his surviving works, both in prose and poetry, seem to come from this period in his life.

I am continuing this series on the Doctors of the Church. I am going to treat them chronologically. Last week I wrote about St. Irenaeus of Lyons who is the earliest chronologically but the most recently proclaimed Doctor of the Church. Today I am writing about St. Athanasius of Alexandria who was born around the year A. D. 300 and who died in A.D. 373. He was named a Doctor of the Church in 1568 by Pope Saint Pius V.

On January 21, 2022, Pope Francis issued a decree declaring St. Irenaeus of Lyons as a Doctor of the Church. The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of the Saints have previously made this proposal to the Holy Father. Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, former chairman of the United States Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine made the comment to Our Sunday Visitor that naming Irenaeus a Doctor of the Church seemed to be correcting “an oversight that this ‘first great Christian theologian’ has never been officially declared a Doctor of the Church.” Bishop Rhoades went on to say that “St. Irenaeus’ defense of the true doctrine, his clear teaching of the Faith and his total devotion to his pastoral ministry make him a great model for bishops today.”

The Doctors of the Church are those men and women who have been recognized for their holiness of life and the profound nature of what they taught in their writings—whether they wrote many volumes or only a few works. They are both saints and teachers, reconciling both callings in a way that has enriched the Church for nearly two millennia. Their life with God informs their life of learning, and their study and teaching enrich their response to God in his Church.