father of the church

1 definition found

father of the church - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  Father of the Church
      n 1: (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 [syn: Church Father,
           Father of the Church, Father]