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Definition of Father of the church
1. Noun. (Christianity) any of about 70 theologians in the period from the 2nd to the 7th century whose writing established and confirmed official church doctrine; in the Roman Catholic Church some were later declared saints and became Doctor of the Church; the best known Latin Church Fathers are Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome; those who wrote in Greek include Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom.
Category relationships: Christian Religion, Christianity
Generic synonyms: Theologian, Theologiser, Theologist, Theologizer
Specialized synonyms: Ambrose, Saint Ambrose, St. Ambrose, Athanasius, Athanasius The Great, Saint Athanasius, St. Athanasius, Augustine, Augustine Of Hippo, Saint Augustine, St. Augustine, Basil, Basil Of Caesarea, Basil The Great, St. Basil, St. Basil The Great, Gregory, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory Of Nazianzen, St. Gregory Of Nazianzen, Irenaeus, Saint Irenaeus, St. Irenaeus, Eusebius Hieronymus, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, Hieronymus, Jerome, Saint Jerome, St. Jerome, John Chrysostom, St. John Chrysostom
Lexicographical Neighbors of Father Of The Church
Literary usage of Father of the church
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis, Guizot (François), Léopold Delisle (1853)
"... ordered them to be transferred to Pavia, where they were again buried with
all the honours due to so great a father of the church.1 CH. XXIV. ..."
2. The Works of President Edwards by Jonathan Edwards (1844)
"So that Abraham still remains the father of the church, or root of the tree,
through Christ his seed. It is the same tree that flourishes from that small ..."
3. The Works of President Edwards: With a Memoir of His Life by Jonathan Edwards, Sereno Edwards Dwight (1830)
"Abraham was not only the natural, but in some sense the spiritual father .of the
church, (as he is called in the New Testament the father of believers,) and ..."
4. Sobriquets and Nicknames by Albert Romer Frey (1887)
"Father of the Church, The. A name sometimes given to Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet,
... La Bruyère, called him the father of the church ; and he la in fact а ..."
5. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing by Johann Jakob Herzog, Philip Schaff, Albert Hauck (1912)
"... canon disastrous to the new-fangled doctrine of predestination, for whose
support no ancient Father of the Church could be cited. ..."
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