Four women the Church calls Doctor

IWhat “Doctor of the Church” means

The old Catholic Encyclopedia sums up the three conditions: eminens doctrina, insignis vitae sanctitas, Ecclesiae declaratio — eminent learning, a high degree of holiness, and proclamation by the Church. The title is rare. For most of the Church’s history every Doctor was a man.

That changed on 27 September 1970, when Saint Paul VI declared Saint Teresa of Avila a Doctor of the Church and noted that she was the first woman to receive the title. In the same homily he made two things plain. The title is not an office in the Church’s hierarchy of teaching. And it implies no lesser esteem for the sublime mission of woman among the People of God: by Baptism she shares in the common priesthood of the faithful and is bound to profess before others the faith she has received, and many women, he said, have reached such heights that their words and writings became light and guidance for their brethren. Days later, in October 1970, he gave the title to Saint Catherine of Siena. John Paul II added Saint Thérèse of Lisieux in 1997, and Benedict XVI Saint Hildegard of Bingen in 2012.

IISaint Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada was born in Avila and entered the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation there at twenty, taking the name Teresa of Jesus. In 1562 she founded the first reformed Carmel in Avila, and she went on to found seventeen convents in all, working with Saint John of the Cross. She wrote her Life, The Way of Perfection for her sisters, and The Interior Castle, which pictures the soul as a castle of seven rooms, with union with God in the innermost. She died at Alba de Tormes on the night of 15 October 1582; Benedict XVI recalls her last words: “After all I die as a child of the Church.” She was canonized in 1622, and her feast is 15 October.

IIISaint Catherine of Siena (1347–1380)

Catherine was born in Siena into a very large family. At sixteen she entered the Dominican Third Order, the Mantellate, and went on living at home, given to prayer, penance and the care of the sick. Her holiness drew people of every kind, nobles and artists, religious and ordinary people, and she urged Pope Gregory XI, then living at Avignon, to return to Rome. She learned to read with difficulty and to write only as an adult, yet her Dialogue, her letters and her prayers made her, in Paul VI’s judgment, a Doctor. She died in Rome in 1380 and was canonized in 1461. Her feast is 29 April.

Benedict XVI notes that her disciples called her “mother,” because they drew spiritual nourishment from her, and he saw in her the spiritual motherhood that so many women, lay and consecrated, still exercise in the Church.

IVSaint Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897)

Thérèse Martin was born at Alençon on 2 January 1873, the daughter of Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin, who are now canonized saints themselves. Her mother died when she was four. She entered the Carmel of Lisieux on 9 April 1888, at fifteen, and died there on 30 September 1897, aged twenty-four. Her autobiography, published a year after her death as Histoire d’une âme, The Story of a Soul, carried her “little way” around the world. Pius XI canonized her in 1925; John Paul II declared her a Doctor on 19 October 1997, calling her the youngest Doctor of the Church and one who grasped the Gospel with “the feminine genius” (Divini Amoris Scientia, 11). Her feast is 1 October.

VSaint Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)

Hildegard was born at Bermersheim and given to the Benedictine abbey of Disibodenberg as an oblate at eight; she made her profession there in 1115 and later succeeded Jutta of Sponheim as head of the sisters. Around 1150 she founded a monastery on the Rupertsberg near Bingen, and in 1165 a second across the Rhine, and was abbess of both. At the invitation of two popes she travelled to preach in public squares and cathedral cities, something unusual for a woman of her time. She wrote the Scivias and other books of her visions, letters, sermons for her sisters, and music. She died at Rupertsberg on 17 September 1179.

Benedict XVI proclaimed her a Doctor on 7 October 2012 and said the title had “an extraordinary importance for women.” He also drew out a theme close to this site’s heart: Hildegard saw the Church as virgin, bride and mother, closely resembling the Mother of God. Since 2021 her optional memorial on 17 September has been in the General Roman Calendar.

VIWhat they teach a woman today

None of the four was a wife or a mother in the flesh, and each was a mother all the same: Teresa, foundress of her sisters’ houses; Catherine, called “mother” by her disciples; Hildegard, abbess of her daughters; Thérèse, who wanted to be love in the heart of the Church. Their lessons belong to every vocation. Teresa teaches that prayer is friendship. Catherine teaches courage in love of Christ and his Church. Thérèse teaches the little way, which John Paul II called a way everyone can take, because everyone is called to holiness. Hildegard, as Benedict XVI put it, knew how to speak to those who were far from the faith and from the Church.

Where to begin: The Story of a Soul is short, free to read in Taylor’s 1912 translation, and the gentlest door. Then Teresa’s Life, then Catherine’s Dialogue. For Hildegard, start with Benedict XVI’s letter proclaiming her a Doctor, which is a fine introduction in itself.