Doctor of the Church

American  

noun

1. a title conferred on an ecclesiastic for great learning and saintliness.

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Example Sentences

Almost 150 years later, current pontiff Pope Leo XIV announced last week that Newman would be recognised as a Doctor of the Church.

From BBC • Aug. 10, 2025

Just six years later, Pope Francis' successor Leo XIV has recognised Newman with an even greater honour, making him a Doctor of the Church.

From BBC • Aug. 10, 2025

And the lion, for me, is essential, even if it is almost certainly a fiction added by later writers who sought to humanize the lawyerly and confrontational Doctor of the Church.

From Washington Post • Sep. 17, 2019

In the 13th century, Doctor of the Church Albertus Magnus held that there were nine choirs of angels, "each choir at 6,666 legions, and each legion at 6,666 angels."

From Time Magazine Archive

The question is answered thus: St. Thomas as a Doctor of the Church and in matters which were not then de fide, is a witness to the expression of the faith of his time.

From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint