The Ninth Day of Christmas: What’s Up, Doc?
Happy Ninth Day of Christmas! Today is the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church.
Well, it is in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite. On the older calendar, it is the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. More on that tomorrow.
Saints Basil and Gregory Nazianzen were contemporaries from Cappadocia and great theologians of the early Church.
They were lifelong friends and cohorts in fighting against the Arian heresy. Their names are sung together in the Litany of the Saints.
Saint Basil was a brilliant student who became a monk and abbot. He wrote the first monastic rule, which is still followed in the east. He was ordained a priest in 363 and became Bishop of Caesarea in 370. He died peacefully in 379 at the age of only 51.
Saint Gregory traveled the Empire seeking knowledge and wisdom, studying in Caesarea under Origen and in Alexandria and then Athens, where he studied and taught for thirty years. He spent several years in contemplation at his friend Basil’s monastery.
He left to follow his true vocation as a diocesan priest and catechist, teaching even the great Saint Jerome. In the year 372 he was consecrated a bishop, and seven years later raised to the office of Patriarch of Constantinople. His time there was spent in constant battle against the Arians. In an attempt to restore some peace to the city, he resigned his office during the First Council of Constantinople and retired. He died in the year 390.
Both men wrote voluminously on matters theological and pastoral. So important was their work, that not only were they honoured as saints, they were also named Doctors of the Church.
And what is a Doctor of the Church?
A Doctor of the Church is saint “recognized as having made significant contribution to theology or doctrine through their research study, or writing”1. More precisely, a Doctor is a writer-saint who has exhibited eminens doctrina (eminent learning) and insignis vitæ sanctitas (a high degree of sanctity) and has therefore received Ecclesiæ declaratio (a proclamation by Church) of that status.
While there are tens of thousands of named saints, there are only 36 Doctors.
So if you’re looking for something to read, you could do worse than seeking out the works of today’s saints.
- Rice, Fr. Larry (2015). “Doctors of the Church?” (PDF). usccb.org. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.