Irenaeus waited more than eighteen centuries to be named a Doctor of the Church
The Catholic Church has granted its highest teaching honour to only 38 saints. Alphonsus Liguori got it 84 years after his death; Irenaeus of Lyons waited over 1,800, partly because martyrs were long left off the list. Until 1970 no woman held the title at all.
Doctor here keeps its Latin meaning of teacher. The title goes to saints judged to have made a major contribution to theology through study or writing, and it rests on three conditions: eminent learning, great holiness and formal proclamation by the church, which Benedict XIV insisted must come from a pope or a general council. It is not an infallible pronouncement, and it does not declare a Doctor's writings free of error.
The list grew in stages. Four Latin fathers, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome and Gregory the Great, had enjoyed special standing since the eighth century, and in 1298 Pope Boniface VIII formally named them Doctors. In 1568 Pius V added four great Eastern figures, among them John Chrysostom and Athanasius. The Byzantine church had its own trio of pre-eminent teachers, honoured together each 30 January; legend says they appeared in a dream to a bishop and ordered a joint feast to end squabbling among their fans.
Among today's 38, 29 are Western and nine Eastern; 19 were bishops, two popes and one a deacon; and more lived in the fourth century, twelve, than any other. Women joined from 1970, when Paul VI named Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena, followed by Therese of Lisieux and, in 2012, Hildegard of Bingen, who had to be formally canonised first. Martyrs were excluded until 2022, when Pope Francis made Irenaeus the first. Francis's choice of the Armenian monk Gregory of Narek in 2015 raised eyebrows because his church was not in communion with Rome in his lifetime.
The newest Doctor is John Henry Newman, proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV on November 1, 2025, and made co-patron of Catholic education with Thomas Aquinas. Campaigns continue for others, including Pope John Paul II. Medieval scholars who never received the title earned nicknames instead: Duns Scotus was the subtle doctor and Roger Bacon the wondrous doctor.
Source: Doctor of the Church
