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Great Christian Thinkers - 1 St Clement, Bishop of Rome
Great Christian Thinkers - 1 St Clement, Bishop of Rome
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St Clement, Bishop of Rome After the first witnesses of the Christian faith, mentioned in the New Testament writings, we find the Apostolic Fathers, that is, to the first and second generations in the Church subsequent to the Apostles. And thus, we can see where the Church’s jour…
Great Christian Thinkers - 10 St. Athanasius of Alexandria
Great Christian Thinkers - 10 St. Athanasius of Alexandria
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Athanasius of Alexandria Continuing our re-visitation of the great teachers of the ancient Church, let us focus our attention on St. Athanasius of Alexandria… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XVI
Great Christian Thinkers - 11 St. Cyril of Jerusalem
Great Christian Thinkers - 11 St. Cyril of Jerusalem
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Cyril of Jerusalem Our attention is focused now on St. Cyril of Jerusalem. His life is woven of two dimensions: on the one hand, pastoral care, and on the other, his involvement, in spite of himself, in the heated controversies that were then tormenting the Church of the East…
Great Christian Thinkers - 13 St. Gregory of Nazianzus
Great Christian Thinkers - 13 St. Gregory of Nazianzus
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Gregory of Nazianzus His Life and Times After discussing St. Basil, a Father of the Church and a great teacher of the faith, I speak now of his friend Gregory of Nazianzus. Like Basil, he was a native of Cappadocia. As a distinguished theologian, orator, and champion of the C…
Great Christian Thinkers - 14 St, Gregory of Nyssa
Great Christian Thinkers - 14 St, Gregory of Nyssa
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Gregory of Nyssa Theologian of Life in the Spirit In the last chapters, I spoke of two great fourth-century Doctors of the Church, Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, a bishop in Cappadocia, in present-day Turkey. Today, we are adding a third, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Basil’s brothe…
Great Christian Thinkers - 15 St. John Chrysostom
Great Christian Thinkers - 15 St. John Chrysostom
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. John Chrysostom The Years in Antioch Recently we observed the sixteenth centenary of St. John Chrysostom’s death (407–2007). It can be said that John of Antioch, nicknamed “Chrysostom,” that is, “golden-mouthed,” because of his eloquence, is also still alive today because of …
Great Christian Thinkers - 17 St. Hilary of Poitiers
Great Christian Thinkers - 17 St. Hilary of Poitiers
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Hilary of Poitiers I reflect now on a great Father of the Church of the West, St. Hilary of Poitiers, one of the important episcopal figures of the fourth century. In the controversy with the Arians, who considered Jesus the Son of God to be an excellent human creature but on…
Great Christian Thinkers - 18 St. Eusebius of Vercelli
Great Christian Thinkers - 18 St. Eusebius of Vercelli
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Eusebius of Vercelli I invite you to reflect on St. Eusebius of Vercelli, the first bishop of northern Italy of whom we have reliable information. Born in Sardinia at the beginning of the fourth century, he moved to Rome with his family at a tender age. Later, he was institut…
Great Christian Thinkers - 19 St. Ambrose of Milan
Great Christian Thinkers - 19 St. Ambrose of Milan
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Ambrose of Milan Holy Bishop Ambrose, about whom I now speak to you, died in Milan in the night between 3 and 4 April 397. It was dawn on Holy Saturday. The day before, at about five o’clock in the afternoon, he had settled down to pray, lying on his bed with his arms wide op…
Great Christian Thinkers - 2 St. Ignatius of Antioch
Great Christian Thinkers - 2 St. Ignatius of Antioch
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Ignatius of Antioch Saint Ignatius was the third bishop of Antioch, from 70 to 107, the date of his martyrdom. At that time, Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch were the three great metropolises of the Roman Empire… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XVI
Great Christian Thinkers - 20 St. Maximus of Turin
Great Christian Thinkers - 20 St. Maximus of Turin
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Maximus of Turin Between the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth, another Father of the Church made a great contribution to the spread and consolidation of Christianity in northern Italy: St. Maximus, whom we come across in 398— a year after St. Ambrose’s…
Great Christian Thinkers - 21 St. Jerome
Great Christian Thinkers - 21 St. Jerome
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Jerome His Life and Work We now turn our attention to St. Jerome, a Church Father who centred his life on the Bible: he translated it into Latin, commented on it in his works, and above all, strove to live it in practice throughout his long earthly life, despite the well-know…
Great Christian Thinkers - 22 Aphraates, “The Sage”
Great Christian Thinkers - 22 Aphraates, “The Sage”
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Aphraates, “The Sage” In our excursion into the world of the Fathers of the Church, I guide you today to a little-known part of this universe of faith, in the territories where the Semitic-language churches flourished, still uninfluenced by Greek thought… Taken from Great Christi…
Great Christian Thinkers - 23 St. Ephrem
Great Christian Thinkers - 23 St. Ephrem
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Ephrem Common opinion today supposes Christianity to be a European religion that subsequently exported the culture of this continent to other countries. But the reality is far more complex, since the roots of the Christian religion are found in the Old Testament, hence, in Je…
Great Christian Thinkers - 24 St. Paulinus of Nola
Great Christian Thinkers - 24 St. Paulinus of Nola
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Paulinus of Nola The Father of the Church to whom we turn our attention now is St. Paulinus of Nola. Paulinus, a contemporary of St. Augustine to whom he was bound by a firm friendship, exercised his ministry at Nola in Campania, where he was a monk and later a priest and a b…
Great Christian Thinkers - 25 St. Augustine of Hippo