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/fˈɑðər əv ðə tʃərtʃ/ Listen

Father of the Church

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. Synonyms: Church Father, Father.

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Etymology of 'Father of the Church'

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"Father of the Church" Quotes from Famous Books

... ages a representative of the age that rather lived in him than he in it. The author's temperament is that which makes him an integral, earnest, original unity, distinct from all before and all that may succeed him. And as a Father of the Church has said that the consciousness of individual being is the sign of immortality, not granted to the inferior creatures—so it is in this individual temperament one and indivisible, and in the intense conviction of it, ...

— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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