I read the following sentence in a book: “As the holy Fathers have always affirmed.” What does this mean? How does the author know that all the holy Fathers have said this? Or does it have a specific meaning?
Oswaldo Wójcik – Ponta Grossa (Brazil)
The question is very timely, as it gives us an opportunity to clarify a very common doubt.
In the classical language of the Church, the terms Holy Fathers, Fathers of the Church or even just Fathers designate a very specific group of people. In this case, the word Father does not refer to priests, but is used in the parental sense, as we will explain later. There are deacons among the Holy Fathers, like St. Ephrem; numerous bishops, like St. Augustine; and even some who did not so much as receive the first degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, like St. Maximus the Confessor.
So what are the characteristics that define a Father of the Church? There are three, well-defined ones:
1. Antiquity: among the Fathers of the West, or Latin Fathers – who wrote in Latin – the last of them is St. Gregory the Great, the Pope who died in 604. Among the Eastern Fathers – who usually wrote in Greek – the last is St. John Damascene, who died in 749.
2. Orthodoxy of doctrine: a Father of the Church must be a theologian who has left a written legacy for future generations, in full conformity with the Faith and recognized as an authority in the Church.
3. Holiness of life:
Let us consider a few examples. St. Thomas Aquinas was a great saint and wrote theological marvels, but he lived in the 13th century, so he cannot be counted among the Fathers because he lacks antiquity; he receives the title of Doctor of the Church. St. Martin of Tours lived in the 4th century, was a saint and a great defender of the true Faith, but he left no writings, so he is not numbered among the Fathers of the Church either. Finally, there were outstanding theologians from the beginning of Christianity who, because they lacked holiness of life, are not included among the Holy Fathers; however, their works are studied in Patristics because they made important contributions to the development and explanation of Catholic doctrine.
The title of Pater – Latin for Father – is applied to these men, obviously not to imply that they gave birth to the Church, a direct work of God, but rather because they were chosen by Providence to protect the Mystical Bride of Christ in her early stages from the attacks of her enemies, especially those who wanted to distort her doctrine. Many had to defend the Faith with their own blood, like the great St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who was martyred in 258.
Because of this, and owing to the fact that they were in some way chosen instruments to instruct the faithful, they are called Fathers.
An example of the use of the name Fathers in the history of the Church can be found in a beautiful letter by St. Boniface, in which this holy apostle expresses feeling unworthy of the great mission entrusted to him:
“‘Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror for my sins overwhelms me!’ (Ps 55:5); I would very much like to abandon the helm of the Church entirely, if I could find such a precedent in the Fathers or in Sacred Scripture” (Epistle 78).
To avoid confusion, one last detail: the word Fathers can also be used to refer to the participants in an ecumenical council, with a meaning different from the one explained above. But this is a less common usage, the explanation of which would be beyond our present scope…
From now on, when we see the terms Holy Fathers, Fathers of the Church or Fathers in any book or, above all, in official Church documents, we will know that it is a reference to these bastions of the Catholic Faith from the first centuries of Christianity.
