Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary : Patrology

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Patrology

Patrology is the study of the Fathers (Patres) of the Church. While the list of Doctors of the Church is clear cut (limited to thirty-three saints given that title by the popes), the list of Fathers is much more elastic. In general, they are saints from the early Church (the first five centuries) who passed on and defended the orthodox faith in their writings. The elasticity of these requirements can be seen in that they were not all saints, some of them had heresy in their writings (e.g., Origen, Tertullian) and others date far later than the fifth century. Some catalogs of Fathers include St. John Damascene in the East (d. 754) and St. Bernard in the West (d. 1153).

Even though they were apologists for the faith or theologians in their own right, the greatest contribution of the Fathers is that of testifying to the faith of the early Church. In witnessing the early Church’s beliefs, they furnish us with a source for establishing the tradition of a certain doctrine. They are very valuable to the study of theology and of apologetics. In the latter of these two fields, they can testify to the truth of Catholic doctrines (e.g., the papacy, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the Eucharist, Marian doctrines, intercessory power of the saints) against the claims of non-Catholics. For an example of how the testimony of the Fathers can be used in apologetics, see our article, "The Church of History".

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