Great Christian Thinkers - 6 Origen of Alexandria
Great Christian Thinkers - 6 Origen of Alexandria
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Origen of Alexandria His Life and Work In our meditations on the great figures of the early Church, we now become acquainted with one of the most remarkable. Origen of Alexandria truly was a figure crucial to the whole development of Christian thought. He gathered up the legacy o…
Great Christian Thinkers - 4 St. Irenaeus of Lyons
Great Christian Thinkers - 4 St. Irenaeus of Lyons
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Irenaeus of Lyons In reflecting on the prominent figures of the early Church, we come to the eminent personality of St. Irenaeus of Lyons. The biographical information on him comes from his own testimony, handed down to us by Eusebius in his fifth book on Church history… Take…
Great Christian Thinkers - 7 Tertullian
Great Christian Thinkers - 7 Tertullian
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Tertullian We continue to speak of the ancient Church’s great personalities. They are teachers of the faith also for us today and witnesses of the perennial timeliness of the Christian faith… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XVI
Great Christian Thinkers - 25 St. Augustine of Hippo
Great Christian Thinkers - 25 St. Augustine of Hippo
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Augustine of Hippo His Life We speak now of the greatest Father of the Latin Church, St. Augustine. This man of passion and faith, of the highest intelligence and tireless in his pastoral care, a great saint and Doctor of the Church, is often known, at least by hearsay, even …
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 - 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 - 26 St. Leo The Great
Great Christian Thinkers - 26 St. Leo The Great
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Leo The Great Continuing our journey through the Fathers of the Church, true stars that shine in the distance, we next encounter a pope who, in 1754, Benedict XIV proclaimed a Doctor of the Church: St. Leo the Great. As the nickname soon attributed to him by tradition suggest…
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 - 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 - 36 Bede the Venerable
Great Christian Thinkers - 36 Bede the Venerable
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Bede the Venerable The saint we are approaching now is called Bede and was born in the northeast of England; to be exact, Northumbria, in the year 672 or 673. He himself recounts that when he was seven years old his parents entrusted him to the abbot of the neighbouring Benedicti…
Great Christian Thinkers - 37 St. Boniface, Apostle of The Germans
Great Christian Thinkers - 37 St. Boniface, Apostle of The Germans
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Boniface, Apostle of The Germans We reflect here on a great eighth-century missionary who spread Christianity in central Europe—indeed, also in my own country: St. Boniface, who has gone down in history as “the Apostle of the Germans.”… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by …
Great Christian Thinkers - 39 John Damascene
Great Christian Thinkers - 39 John Damascene
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
John Damascene John Damascene was a personage of prime importance in the history of Byzantine theology and a great doctor in the history of the universal Church. Above all, he was an eyewitness of the passage from the Greek and Syrian Christian cultures shared by the Eastern part…
Great Christian Thinkers - 38 Germanus of Constantinople
Great Christian Thinkers - 38 Germanus of Constantinople
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Germanus of Constantinople Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople does not belong among the most representative figures of the Greek-speaking world of Eastern Christianity. Yet his name appears with a certain solemnity in the list of the great champions of sacred images drafted by …
Great Christian Thinkers - 44 St. Odo of Cluny
Great Christian Thinkers - 44 St. Odo of Cluny
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Odo of Cluny We resume the presentation of important writers of the Eastern and Western Church in the Middle Ages because in their lives and writings we see, as in a mirror, what it means to be Christian. One such luminous figure is St. Odo, abbot of Cluny… Taken from Great C…
Great Christian Thinkers - 53 St. Hildegard of Bingen
Great Christian Thinkers - 53 St. Hildegard of Bingen
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Hildegard of Bingen In 1988, on the occasion of the Marian Year, Venerable John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter titled Mulieris Dignitatem on the precious role that women have played and play in the life of the Church… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XV…
Great Christian Thinkers - 51 Hugh and Richard of Saint-Victor