Stay ConnectedA podcast about the Fathers of the Church—the foundational figures in Christian history. A production of CatholicCulture.org.
Seasons 1-3 were hosted by Mike Aquilina. Season 4 is hosted by Dr. Jim Papandrea.
1: The Church Fathers
2: The Early Ecumenical Councils
3: Cities of God
4: Heresies
Episodes marked as bonus are on miscellaneous topics.
Copyright: © Copyright 2023 Trinity Communications
St. Severinus Boethius was a man with one foot in the ancient world and one foot in the middle ages. He is another one of our lesser-known fathers who were anything but forgotten among the medieval scholastics. In this episode, Dr. Papandrea introduces another enigmatic but highly influential Church father. This is the last episode of our interim series on “Forgotten Fathers” - the next episode of The Way of the Fathers will introduce us to the Doctors of the Church, and begin our new series on the Doctors.
Links
If you need a refresher on Arianism, listen to episode 4.11 in our series on The Heresies: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/411-heresies-arianism-man-who-became-god/
To read Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14328/14328-h/14328-h.htm
To read Boethius’ On the Trinity: https://www.logicmuseum.com/authors/boethius/boethiusdetrinitate.htm
Here’s the video with an interpretation of the reconstruction of Boethius’ songs: https://youtu.be/w-tALWHHUaE?si=YSyNj-gFt3TIMWAp
For more general information on the historical context of the early Church, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Whenever you see “Pseudo-“ in front of a name like this, it means we don’t really know who the person was. This Church father wrote under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, a convert of St. Paul mentioned in the book of Acts. But the documents attributed to him were written hundreds of years later. Nevertheless, this unknown pseudonymous author was hugely influential for some of the most important fathers and doctors of the Church. The medieval scholastics and mystics found these writings especially inspiring.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on other anonymous Church fathers: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-6-whats-in-name-anonymous-texts-from-early-church/
To go deeper into the case of Dionysius the Areopagite, with some more cautions about this author’s theology and its use throughout history, see the New Advent article: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05013a.htm
To read Pseudo-Dionysius’ treatise, The Divine Names: https://ccel.org/ccel/rolt/dionysius/dionysius.iv.ii.html
To read Pseudo-Dionysius’ treatise, The Mystical Theology: https://ccel.org/ccel/rolt/dionysius/dionysius.v.html
For more general information on the historical context of the early Church, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Egeria (or Etheria) was a woman who embarked on a three-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in the late fourth century. From her “pilgrimage diary” (actually fragments from her letters to her “sisters” back in Spain) we learn much about liturgy in Jerusalem. There we can see the beginnings of the lectionary, and the seeds of the Stations of the Cross. In this episode, Dr. Papandrea also talks about the history of the spiritual discipline of pilgrimage itself.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on the city of Jerusalem, Episode 3.2: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/32-cities-god-jerusalem-city-origin/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on Cyril of Jerusalem, Episode 34: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/cyril-jerusalemmystery-and-mayhem/
To read the fragments from Egeria’s “diary” (letters): https://www.ccel.org/m/mcclure/etheria/etheria.htm
For more on the historical context of the early Church in the fourth century, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Rufinus is mostly known as the translator of Origen, and the opponent of St. Jerome in the controversy over Origen. But he also wrote an important commentary on the Apostles’ Creed, which is on Dr. Papandrea’s list of “state of the art documents,” patristic works that succinctly showcase the state of the development of doctrine at the time they were written.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episodes on Origen, Episode 19: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/life-origen-most-controversial-christian-ever/
and Episode 20: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/origen-part-2-hero-heretic-or-hybrid/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on Jerome, Episode 37: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/37jerome-curmudgeonly-commentator/
To read Jerome’s Letter to Rufinus of Aquileia: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2887&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2376957
To read Rufinus’ Apology (reply to Jerome): https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2887&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2471912
To read Rufinus’ Commentary on the Apostle’s Creed: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2889&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2471912
For more on the historical context of the early Church, including the development of the Christian Bible, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
After the controversies in the mid-third century, in the aftermath of the persecution of the emperor Decius and the schism of Novatian, Pope St. Stephen was instrumental in clarifying the Church’s theology of the sacraments of Baptism and Penance and Reconciliation. What is required for a valid baptism? What is the solution for falling away into mortal sin? Who may offer the absolution of the Church and by what authority? Are confession and penance to be done publicly, or privately? Should we rebaptize Protestants coming into the Catholic Church? What if I “backslide”? Should I get baptized again? Is it OK to baptize in an alternate formula, like “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer?” These questions, and more, were answered during the papacy of Stephen of Rome, which served to formalize and standardize the sacraments as we still know them today.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on Cyprian of Carthage, contemporary and sometimes opponent of Pope St. Stephen: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-18-short-happy-life-cyprian-carthage/
For more on the third century context in the history of the early Church, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Caius was a priest in Rome, in the third century. He wrote that if one comes to Rome, one can visit the shrines at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. These tombs had been known and visited since the apostle’s deaths, and are known to this day - they are in the same place where Caius knew them. The tomb of St. Paul is directly under the main altar of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, which was built on the site of the first memorial chapel, which was itself built on the site of the original shrine. The tomb of St. Peter is directly under the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. The present St. Peter’s Basilica, built in the renaissance, was built on the same site as the original St. Peter’s, which was commissioned by the emperor Constantine in the fourth century. The tomb has always been directly under the altar.
Links
To read the fragments that we have from Caius: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1724&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2464384
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on Hippolytus, contemporary of Caius and antagonist of Pope St. Zephyrinus: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-17the-long-strange-trip-hippolytus-rome/
For more on the third century context in the history of the early Church, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
The early Christian apologist Athenagoras may not be as famous as some of the other Church fathers, but he’s a great example of someone who started out as an apologist against Christianity, but when he actually learned what the apostles and the Church taught, he was converted. He teaches us about the doctrines of the Trinity, and the Resurrection.
Links
To read Athenagoras’ A Plea for the Christians: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1656&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2421225
To read Athenagoras’ On the Resurrection of the Dead: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1657&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2421225
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on Justin Martyr: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/justin-martyr-everything-good-is-ours/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on Melito of Sardis: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-11-melito-and-parting-ways/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on Minucius Felix: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-11-minucius-felix-and-great-novel-antiquity/
For a short explanation of the word “consubstantial,” see the video: “What Does Consubstantial Mean?”: https://youtu.be/P9SGuaN-xjU?si=VaB4U3n6pZVdxsHp
For more on Athenagoras and the other apologists in the context of the history of the early Church, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
For more on the doctrine of the Trinity in the early Church, see the book: Trinity 101: Father, Son, Holy Spirit: https://www.liguori.org/trinity-101.html
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
In the first episode of an interim series on lesser known fathers, Dr. Papandrea introduces one of the “apostolic fathers,” Papias of Hierapolis. We only have fragments of his writings, but those fragments started a controversy over the authorship of the book of Revelation and the Johannine letters. Papias is a good example of how the Church fathers, as individuals, were not right about everything - Papias was wrong in his methodology for interpreting the Book of Revelation, among other things, but he gives us some important clues into the authorship and writing of the Gospels.
Links
To read some of the fragments of Papias’ Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1609&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2418437
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on Ignatius of Antioch: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-4-ignatius-antioch-to-know-jesus-christ-our-god/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on Polycarp of Smyrna: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-5-st-polycarp-and-social-network/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on the fourth century historian Eusebius of Caesarea: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-25eusebius-history-from-wrong-side-history/
For more on Papas and the apostolic fathers, in the context of the history of the early Church, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
For Dr. Papandrea’s take on the Book of Revelation, see the book: The Wedding of the Lamb: A Historical Approach to the Book of Revelation: https://wipfandstock.com/9781608998067/the-wedding-of-the-lamb/
To watch Dr. Papandrea’s short video on the early hierarchy of the Church and the definitions of the Greek words for the clergy, see: Did The Original Church Have Bishops?: https://youtu.be/bXQ0UYfN9a0?si=SxFVGcfkiME9jlXa
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Throughout this series, Dr. Papandrea has been outlining the major heresies of the early Church, defining them in contrast to the orthodoxy of mainstream Catholicism. So after all of this, what can we say about orthodoxy (correct doctrine) in general? How do we know it when we see it, and how to we define it? What is the role of orthodoxy in the development of doctrine and the tradition of the Church?
Links
For an overview of the information in this series on the heresies, along with HELPFUL CHARTS showing the heresies and how they differ from orthodoxy, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
For an overview of the heresies using the analogies of popular culture, super heroes, and science fiction characters, see the book: From Star Wars to Superman: Christ Figures in Science Fiction and Superhero Films: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/from-star-wars-to-superman/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Does the devotional use of Christian art and iconography break the commandment against worshiping idols? How and where does one draw the line between legitimate reverence and idolatrous worship? In this controversy - as is often the case - the heresy is a criticism of an ancient practice. And you may be surprised to learn that the related tradition of the veneration of relics is even older!
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 56 on John of Damascus: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/56john-damascus-last-witness-to-lost-world/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 2.8 on The Second Council of Nicaea: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/28-picture-this-iconoclasm-and-second-nicaea/
For a bit more on the icon controversy in context, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
The pendulum swings one more time as Eutyches overreacts against Nestorius, and emphasizes the union of the two natures in Christ, to the point of blurring the distinction between them. In this conception of the Person of Christ, the divine nature so overwhelms the human nature that Jesus’ humanity is absorbed and cancelled out like a drop of oil in the ocean. This solution corrected Nestorius’ separation of the two natures, but it went too far and compromised the integrity of his human nature and, even more than Apollinarius before him, described a Jesus who was not really fully human.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 46 on Cyril of Alexandria: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/46cyril-alexandria-fifth-century-man-from-uncle/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 48 on Leo the Great: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/48leo-great-who-roared-with-voice-peter/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 2.5 on The Council of Chalcedon: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/25-chalcedon-firm-foundation-for-doctrine-christ/
To read the Tome of Leo (Letter to Flavian): https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2133&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2409252
To listen to the audiobook of the Tome of Leo: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-leo-great-tome-leo/
To read Cyril of Alexandria’s On the Unity of Christ: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_christ_is_one_01_text.htm
For more on the christological controversies in context, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
The pendulum swings again as Nestorius overreacts against Apollinarius, and emphasizes the distinction between the two natures in Christ, to the point of describing a radical separation of natures. It was as if Nestorius was saying that Christ is not one Person, but two - a divine Person and a human Person, united only as long as the human will submits to the divine will. This solution corrected Apollinarius’ diminished human nature, but it divided the life and actions of Christ into two, even to the point of claiming that Mary was not the Mother of his divine nature.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 45 on John Cassian: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/045john-cassian-monk-on-move-solitary-in-city/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 46 on Cyril of Alexandria: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/46cyril-alexandria-fifth-century-man-from-uncle/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 2.4 on The Council of Ephesus: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/24-ephesus-mother-all-controversies/
To read John Casein’s On the Incarnation of the Lord Against Nestorius: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2097&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2405100
To read Cyril of Alexandria’s On the Unity of Christ: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_christ_is_one_01_text.htm
For more on the christological controversies in context, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Apollinarius tried to say that Jesus could not have sinned because his human nature had no will of its own. In doing this, he stumbled onto a heresy called Monothelitism (“one-will” christology), which would become a huge controversy later. But a Christ without a human will would be a Christ who is not fully human. He would only be wearing a human body like a costume, but he would not be truly human.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 30 on Gregory of Nazianzus: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/gregory-nazianzen-greatness-in-passive-voice/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 2.3 on The Council of Constantinople: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/23-first-constantinople-capital-council/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 54 on Maximus the Confessor: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/54maximus-confessor-where-east-and-west-meet/
To read Gregory of Nazianzus’ First Letter to Cledonius Against Apollinarius: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2459&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2402862
To read Gregory of Nazianzus’ Second Letter to Cledonius Against Apollinarius: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2463&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2402862
For more on the christological controversies in context, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
For more on the concept of the will of God as it relates to God’s sovereignty, human free will, and the submission of the human will to the will of God, see the book: Praying Like the Early Church: Seven Insights from the Church Fathers to Help You Connect with God: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/praying-like-the-early-church/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Pelagius was so optimistic about human nature and the freedom of the will that he went so far as to deny the reality of original sin and the need for infant baptism. Saint Augustine corrected Pelagius and his followers, but in the heat of the debate he went a bit too far in in the opposite direction, and proposed a doctrine of election that the Church ultimately did not embrace. This episode explores, not only the problems with Pelagianism, but also the problems with its opposite, and the ways in which Saint Augustine inadvertently laid the foundation for the later heresy of Calvinism.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 38 on Augustine of Hippo (part 1): https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/38augustine-part-1-misspent-youth-and-conversion/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 39 on Augustine of Hippo (part 2): https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/39augustine-part-2-mob-made-bishop-makes-his-mark/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 40 on Augustine of Hippo (part 3): https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/40augustine-part-3-last-days-and-end-age/
To read St. Augustine’s Confessions: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3102&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2399020
To read St. Augustine’s On the Proceedings of Pelagius: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3308&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2399018
To read St. Augustine’s On the Spirit and the Letter: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3305&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2399019
To read St. Augustine’s On Grace and Free Will: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3302&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2399021
To read St. Augustine’s On the Soul and its Origin: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3311&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2399023
To read St. Augustine’s Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3287&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2399022
For more on the controversy over Pelagianism, St. Augustine’s rebuttal of it, and the Council of Orange, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
For more on the concept of the will of God as it relates to God’s sovereignty, human free will, and the submission of the human will to the will of God, see the book: Praying Like the Early Church: Seven Insights from the Church Fathers to Help You Connect with God: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/praying-like-the-early-church/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
After the Council of Nicaea, all the same questions that had been asked of the Son of God, were now asked of the Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit divine, and worthy of worship? Does worship of the Holy Spirit compromise monotheism? Some who reluctantly accepted the divinity of the Son still refused to accept the divinity of the Spirit, and so they continued to reject the doctrine of the Trinity - these were called “Spirit-fighters.” This controversy led to the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in the year 381 AD, and to the completion of the Nicene Creed.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 29 on Basil of Caesarea: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/29basil-and-beginning-christian-social-thought/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 30 on Gregory of Nazianzus: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/gregory-nazianzen-greatness-in-passive-voice/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 31 on Gregory of Nyssa: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/gregory-nyssa-zero-to-hero/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 2.3 on The Council of Constantinople: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/23-first-constantinople-capital-council/
To read On the Holy Spirit by Basil of Caesarea: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2544&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2396265
To read the Letter to Ablabius “On Not Three Gods” by Gregory of Nyssa: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2311&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2396270
To read On the Holy Trinity by Gregory of Nyssa: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2310&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2396271
To read The Fifth Theological Oration, On the Holy Spirit by Gregory of Nazianzius: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2444&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2396268
For more on the “Spirit-fighters” and the Cappadocians in their historical context, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
And if you want a deep scholarly dive into the Arian Controversy with all its factions, and the aftermath of the Council of Nicaea, the best book to read is Nicaea and its Legacy, by Lewis Ayres.
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Arianism was the fourth century evolution of adoptionism, in which Arius made a concession to the mainstream by accepting a quasi-divinity in Jesus Christ. But this was an acquired divinity, an earned divinity, and a divinity that was less than that of the Father. The controversy led to the first worldwide (ecumenical) council of bishops, the Council of Nicaea, in the year 325 AD, and it ultimately led to the crafting of the Nicene Creed, as the Church’s definitive statement of orthodox faith.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 23 on Alexander of Alexandria: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-23-alexanders-lagtime-stand/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 24 on Athanasius of Alexandria: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-23athanasius-against-world/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 2.2 on The Council of Nicaea: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/22-council-nicaea-first-and-foremost/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 33 on Ambrose of Milan: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/33ambrose-milan-how-church-regards-state/
To read the letter from Alexander of Alexandria to Alexander of Byzantium (Constantinople): https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1823&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2393434
For an introduction to Athanasius’ many writings against Arianism: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3085&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2393444
To listen to the full text of St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine as an audio book: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-augustine-de-doctrina-christiana-full/
For more on the Arian controversy in its historical context, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
For a line by line explanation of the Nicene Creed (with cameo appearances by Batman and Superman), see the book: Trinity 101: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: https://www.liguori.org/trinity-101.html
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
In the aftermath of the persecutions, controversies arose over the sacraments, which required clarification of the Church’s sacramental theology. Out of those controversies, new schisms emerged which had a correct understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity, but incorrect understandings of ecclesiology (the doctrine of the Church) and incorrect understandings of what makes a sacrament valid and effective. The significance of these schisms cannot be overstated, since it is still true to this day that the practice of rebaptism is one of the most prevalent acts of schism against the universal Church, and one of the greatest barriers to unity.
Links
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 18 on Cyprian of Carthage: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-18-short-happy-life-cyprian-carthage/
To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 39 (the 2nd of 3) on Augustine of Hippo & the controversies: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/39augustine-part-2-mob-made-bishop-makes-his-mark/
To read the anonymous document On Rebaptism: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1729&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2390688
To read St. Augustine’s treatise, On Baptism, Against the Donatists: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3294&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2390773
To read St. Augustine’s letter, The Correction of the Donatists: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3296&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2390689
For more on the controversy surrounding the third and fourth century schisms and the implications for the Sacraments, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
For all the details on Novatian, see the book: Novatian of Rome and the Culmination of Pre-Nicene Orthodoxy: https://wipfandstock.com/9781606087800/novatian-of-rome-and-the-culmination-of-pre-nicene-orthodoxy/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
In this second part of a two-part series on Novatian of Rome, Dr. Papandrea discusses the flawed sacramental theology and ecclesiology of Novatian, which led to a schism that not only lasted for centuries, but created a new situation in which a faction could be orthodox with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity, yet not within the mainstream of the Church and her Tradition (i.e., Christian, but not Catholic).
Links
To read the document Against Novatian (possibly by Pope Sixtus II): https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1727&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2386777
To read the correspondence between Pope Cornelius and Cyprian of Carthage regarding Novatian: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1749&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2386779
For all the details on Novatian, see the book: Novatian of Rome and the Culmination of Pre-Nicene Orthodoxy: https://wipfandstock.com/9781606087800/novatian-of-rome-and-the-culmination-of-pre-nicene-orthodoxy/
For more on the controversy surrounding Novatian’s schism and the development of the sacrament of Confession, Penance, and Reconciliation, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Novatian of Rome is an extremely important, but conflicted, character in the early Church. On the one hand, he clarified and helped define the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, preparing the Church for the ecumenical councils. On the other hand, he was the central figure of a schism in a controversy over the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. In this first part of a two-part series on Novatian, Dr. Papandrea discusses the positive contributions of Novatian, as a Church father, and as the subject of his doctoral dissertation.
Links
To read Novatian’s letters to Cyprian (letters #29 and #30 from “the Roman clergy” were written by Novatian): https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1770&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2383234
For more information on Cyprian of Carthage, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 18: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-18-short-happy-life-cyprian-carthage/
For more information on those Church fathers who were significantly influenced by Novatian, listen to Mike Aquilina’s episodes 26 (Hilary of Poitiers), 23 (Alexander of Alexandria), 24 (Athanasius of Alexandria), and 33 (Ambrose of Milan).
For more on the historical context of the third century and the sacraments, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
For all the details on Novatian, see the book: Novatian of Rome and the Culmination of Pre-Nicene Orthodoxy: https://wipfandstock.com/9781606087800/novatian-of-rome-and-the-culmination-of-pre-nicene-orthodoxy/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Modalism denies the distinctions between the three Persons of the Trinity, so that God is presented as, not a Trinity at all, but rather a monad with three names. Modalism can be expressed chronologically (the Father became incarnate as the Son) or functionally (the names describe activities like Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer), but either way, in modalism the Son IS the Father in disguise, which ultimately denies the real humanity of Jesus Christ and the reality of his passion.
Links
For more information on Irenaeus of Lyons, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 10: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/irenaeus-lyon-putting-smack-down-on-heresy/
To read Irenaeus of Lyons’ Demonstration of the Apostolic Teaching: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/irenaeus_02_proof.htm
For more information on Tertullian, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 13: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/tertullian-and-theology-sarcasm/
and Episode 14: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/tertullian-man-who-forged-words-and-invented-freedoms/
To read Tertullian’s Against Praxeas: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1670&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2368544
For more information on Hippolytus, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 17: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-17the-long-strange-trip-hippolytus-rome/
To read Hippolytus’ Refutation of All Heresies: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1706&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2371969
For more detail on the heresy of modalism, and an introduction to Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Novatian, see the books: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
and Trinity 101: Father, Son, Holy Spirit: https://www.liguori.org/trinity-101.html
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Whether Origen is considered a father of the Church, or a heretic, depends on whom you ask. But everyone agrees he may have been just a bit too smart for his own good. At best, he tried in vain to out-gnostic the gnostics, at worst, he was too influenced by gnosticism. In the end, the Fifth Ecumenical Council declared him a heretic. In this this episode, Dr. Papandrea gives evidence why Origen should not be considered a father of the Church, but should be considered a heretic, but in the end, you decide!
Links
Make sure to listen to Mike Aquilina’s episodes on Origen, Episode 19: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/life-origen-most-controversial-christian-ever/
and Episode 20: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/origen-part-2-hero-heretic-or-hybrid/
For more information on Epiphanius of Salamis, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 35: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/35epiphanius-salamis-passion-for-pure-doctrine/
To read Jerome’s Letter to Rufinus of Aquileia: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2887&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2376957
To read the Canons of the Fifth Ecumenical Council (the Second Council of Constantinople) 553 AD: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3812.htm
Also check out this article by Thomas Mirus on Origen’s theology https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/church-fathers-origens-theology/
and this one on Pope Benedict XVI on Origen’s thought: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7548
For more detail on the controversy over Origen in context, and related topics, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
The heresy of docetism evolved into a complicated web of schools of mythology, which we lump together under the name of gnosticism. These all still denied the real humanity of Christ, though in two distinct ways. Docetic gnosticism continued the trend of seeing Christ as a phantom, with no real tangible body. “Hybrid” gnosticism made concessions to the accounts of a tangible body of Jesus, but called it an ethereal, or luminous, body - in other words, not a true material flesh and blood body.
Links
For more information on Clement of Alexandria, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 16: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/clement-alexandria-teacher-in-new-kind-school/
To read Clement of Alexandria’s Exhortation to the Heathen: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1658&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2371968
For more information on Irenaeus of Lyons, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 10: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/irenaeus-lyon-putting-smack-down-on-heresy/
To read Irenaeus of Lyons’ Demonstration of the Apostolic Teaching: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/irenaeus_02_proof.htm
For more information on Hippolytus, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 17: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-17the-long-strange-trip-hippolytus-rome/
To read Hippolytus’ Refutation of All Heresies: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1706&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2371969
For more information on the gnostic gospels, listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode “Apocrypha Now!…”: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/apocrypha-now-on-myth-lost-gospels/
To read some of the gnostic writings, see the Primary Sources tab on Dr. Papandrea’s home page (scroll down to Infancy Gospel of Thomas and following): https://jimpapandrea.wordpress.com/primary-sources-links/
For more detail on the heresy of gnosticism, see the books: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
and The Earliest Christologies: Five Images of Christ in the Post-Apostolic Age: https://www.ivpress.com/the-earliest-christologies
For more on gnosticism (and the other heresies) and Science Fiction, see the book: From Star Wars to Superman: Christ Figures in Science Fiction and Superhero Films: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/from-star-wars-to-superman/
For more on the doctrine of the Resurrection Body and its relationship to anthropology, see the book: What Really Happens After We Die?: There WILL Be Hugs in Heaven: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/what-really-happens-after-we-die/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
In the third century, the heresy of the Ebionites evolved into a more general form of adoptionism, still denying the divinity of Christ, and now emphasizing his status as an anointed, but adopted, son of God, much like the kings and prophets of the Old Testament. Adoptionism is also known as “dynamic monarchianism,” in part for its claim that it was preserving the oneness (monarchy) of God by denying the divinity of Christ.
Links
For more information on Justin Martyr, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 9: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/justin-martyr-everything-good-is-ours/
To read Justin Martyr’s First Apology: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1610&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2368540
For more information on Irenaeus of Lyons, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 10: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/irenaeus-lyon-putting-smack-down-on-heresy/
To read Irenaeus of Lyons’ Demonstration of the Apostolic Teaching: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/irenaeus_02_proof.htm
For more information on Tertullian, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 13: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/tertullian-and-theology-sarcasm/
and Episode 14: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/tertullian-man-who-forged-words-and-invented-freedoms/
To read Tertullian’s Against Praxeas: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1670&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2368544
Read the Vatican document, Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation”: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html
For more detail on the heresy of adoptionism, see the books: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
and The Earliest Christologies: Five Images of Christ in the Post-Apostolic Age: https://www.ivpress.com/the-earliest-christologies
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
For the second heresy, Dr. Papandrea examines the opposite extreme from the first: these are the Docetics, including the most famous docetic teacher, Marcion and his followers. They concluded that Christ was a god, not necessarily different from the many other gods or demigods in the Greco-Roman pantheon, but that he was not really a human.
Links
For more information on Polycarp of Smyrna, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 5: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-5-st-polycarp-and-social-network/
To read Polycarp of Smyrna’s Letter to the Philippians: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1626&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2365055
To listen to Polycarp of Smyrna’s Letter to the Philippians: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-polycarp-letter-to-philippians/
For more information on Ignatius of Antioch, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 4: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-4-ignatius-antioch-to-know-jesus-christ-our-god/
To read Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1633&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2365056
To listen to Ignatius of Antioch’s Letters to the Smyrnaeans: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-ignatius-antioch-letter-to-smyrnaeans/
For more information on Irenaeus of Lyons, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 10: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/irenaeus-lyon-putting-smack-down-on-heresy/
For more detail on the heresy of docetism and the Marcionites, see the book: Reading the Early Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Is Jesus Christ God? Is he a man? Is he both? Spoiler alert: the mainstream Church answered with the both/and, but the factions on the fringes tended to choose one or the other. For our first heresy, we take a look at the Ebionites, and their New Testament-era predecessors, the so-called Judaizers. These concluded that Jesus Christ was a mere human. A human who became a prophet perhaps, but just a human.
Links
For more information on Ignatius of Antioch, see Mike Aquilina’s Episode 4: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-4-ignatius-antioch-to-know-jesus-christ-our-god/
To read Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Magnesians: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1629&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2351277
To listen to Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Magnesians: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-ignatius-antioch-letter-to-magnesians/
For more information on Irenaeus of Lyons, see Mike Aquilina’s Episode 10: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/irenaeus-lyon-putting-smack-down-on-heresy/
For more detail on the Ebionite heresy, see the book: The Earliest Christologies: Five Images of Christ in the Post-Apostolic Age https://www.ivpress.com/the-earliest-christologies
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To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
I am honored to be picking up the Way of the Fathers podcast where my good friend, Mike Aquilina, left off. In season 4 of The Way of the Fathers, we’ll be looking at the heresies of the early Church, and how the Church fathers confronted and refuted them. This first episode is the introduction to the series, where I define some terms and tell you what you can expect as we trace through the early centuries of Christianity, tracking chronologically the alternatives to orthodoxy that were proposed, debated, and shown to be inconsistent with Scripture and prior tradition.
Links
For more detail on the Church fathers and the heresies of the early Church, see my book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine, from Sophia Institute Press (2022) https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture’s Newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/
DONATE at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, on YouTube - The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
After 99 wonderful episodes by Mike Aquilina, Way of the Fathers is getting a new host! We are sad to see Mike go, but excited about his hand-picked successor, Jim Papandrea. In this conversation, Mike introduces Jim to the listeners and these two friends and collaborators talk about their love for all things Patristic.
Please help CatholicCulture.org - and Way of the Fathers - to continue in the new year. Donate now and your gift will be matched! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Jim Papandrea's website https://jimpapandrea.wordpress.com/bio/
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters
Christianity conquered cities one by one, not by arms or propaganda, but by the quiet witness of ordinary lives well lived. Worldly power yielded before the prayers of the saints and the blood of the martyrs. What can we learn from the first evangelization as we work our witness today?
Links
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Christianity-Marginal-Religious-Centuries/dp/0060677015/
Rodney Stark, Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome https://www.amazon.com/Cities-God-Christianity-Movement-Conquered/dp/0061349887/
Wayne Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul https://www.amazon.com/First-Urban-Christians-Social-Apostle/dp/0300098618
Thomas A. Robinson, Who Were the First Christians? Dismantling the Urban Thesis https://global.oup.com/academic/product/who-were-the-first-christians-9780190620547
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
Western Christianity—Latin Christianity—began in Africa and made its way across the sea to Italy. All the great orthodox Latin writers of the first through third centuries were African. The distinctive western liturgy was likely a product of Roman Africa. Christianity came to Africa at a time of literary renaissance, and the Church is still the beneficiary of that particular Christian culture.
Links
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Mike Aquilina, Africa and the Early Church: The Almost-Forgotten Roots of Catholic Christianity https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/africa-and-the-early-church-the-almost-forgotten-roots-of-catholic-christianity
J. Patout Burns Jr., Robin M. Jensen, Christianity in Roman Africa: The Development of Its Practices and Beliefs https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Roman-Africa-Development-Practices/dp/0802869319
Thomas Oden, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity https://www.amazon.com/Africa-Shaped-Christian-Mind-Rediscovering/dp/0830837051/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
From Rome to Milan to Ravenna, the Western capital moved—searching for the site least vulnerable to barbarian incursion. And wherever the capital moved, money followed. And where there’s money, there’s monumental art, science, and literary culture. In Ravenna there were great figures such as Galla Placidia and Peter Chrysologus. Today, the early Christian art and architecture of Ravenna are among the world’s great treasures. It’s one of the few places on earth where you can walk into a church and have almost the same experience one of the Fathers of the Church would have had.
Links
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Judith Herrin, Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe https://www.amazon.com/Ravenna-8211-Capital-Late-Antiqui/dp/0691153434/
Fr. Félix López, S.H.M., “Mary in the writings of St. Peter Chrysologus” https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/resources/virgin-mary/fathers/10150-mary-in-the-writings-of-st-peter-chrysologus
Peter Chrysologus, “Each One of Us Is Called To Be Both a Sacrifice To God and His Priest” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=173
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
In a short span of time, in the fourth century, Byzantium made the leap from a relatively insignificant harbor city to the de facto capital of the world. Constantine moved there from Rome and gave his empire a new (and Christian) founding. He also laid the foundations for a political milieu that made “Byzantine” a byword meaning complicated, bureaucratic, and corrupt. Constantinople’s laws, for better and worse, circumscribed the movements and actions of many of the later Fathers.
Links
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.54 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2881
Socrates Scholasticus, The Ecclesiastical History 1.16 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2884
John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Byzantium-Julius-Norwich/dp/0679772693/
Thomas Madden, Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World https://www.amazon.com/Istanbul-City-Majesty-Crossroads-World/dp/0670016608
They Might Be Giants, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” https://youtu.be/0XlO39kCQ-8?si=MvE92tpEJcFeYDlx
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
As if an interest in patristics isn’t strange enough, in this episode we’re getting still more exotic. We’re entering the world of Armenian patristics. We’re visiting the ancient city of Ejmiatsin—leaping over the barriers of language (and even alphabet) to encounter the heroes too often neglected in the histories. This is the story of St. Gregory the Illuminator and his contemporaries, and the Church they founded. Armenia also became a great center of learning and so houses translations of many Greek and Syriac works that would otherwise be lost.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Mike Aquilina, “Ancient Christian capital rises again in stunning New York exhibit” https://angelusnews.com/voices/ancient-christian-capital-rises-again-in-stunning-new-york-exhibit/
Helen C. Evans, ed., Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Armenia_Art_Religion_and_Trade_in_the_Middle_Ages
Society for Armenian Studies, Digital Resources https://societyforarmenianstudies.com/2018/02/12/armenian-studies-digital-resources/
Robert W. Thomson, Five Studies in Armenian Patristics https://archive.org/details/thomson-studies-1964-1982
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
Faith came to France very early and very strong. It seems likely that traders brought the Gospel from distant Smyrna (modern Izmir in Turkey) to Lugdunum (modern Lyon). The blood of martyrs was seed. Blandina, a sickly slave, emerged from her trials an epic hero, honored forever. Irenaeus, the globetrotting scholar-bishop, arose as the second century’s greatest theologian.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Museum and ruins of Lugdunum https://lugdunum.grandlyon.com/en/
The Letter of the Churches of Vienna and Lugdunum to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1934
Eusebius, Church History, Book 5 (including the deeds of Irenaeus) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1998
Richard Krautheimer, Three Christian Capitals: Topography and Politics https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_-Rk0fpRIKLAC
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
In Edessa—the borderlands of the Empire—we make our first encounter with Syriac Christianity. Its origins are shrouded in mist, and within the mist we meet the indistinct figures of heretics, saints, and a king who is both historic and mythic.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Labubna, Acts of Addaeus (Addai), https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1907
Various, Extracts from Various Books Concerning Abgar the King and Addaeus the Apostle https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2865
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
Ephesus was home to one of the Wonders of the World; and it’s the setting for one of the most dramatic moments in the itineraries of the Apostles: the riot of the silversmiths. It was also the location of one of the most dramatic moments in the age of the Fathers: the riotous council that condemned Nestorius.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Socrates Scholasticus, Church History (Book VII) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26017.htm
Jerome Murphy O’Connor St. Paul’s Ephesus: Texts and Archaeology https://www.amazon.com/St-Pauls-Ephesus-Texts-Archaeology/dp/081465259X
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
Alexandria was cultural capital of the ancient world — and the ancient Church. It had the greatest library on the planet and a state-subsidized community of scholars. It was the city where theology first developed as a science. The Alexandrians had their own distinctive way of interpreting Scripture, developed over centuries by giants: Clement, Origen, Athanasius, Cyril. Its influence on the development of Christianity was profound and permanent.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Jean-Yves Empereur, Alexandria: Jewel of Egypt https://www.amazon.com/Discoveries-Alexandria-Jewel-Egypt/dp/0810991012/
Michael Grant, The Ancient Mediterranean https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Mediterranean-Meridian-Michael-Grant/dp/0452010373/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
No one would have guessed when Rome was founded that it would become anything important. But it became the capital of a vast empire and earthly center of the universal Church. It is the destination of the Acts of the Apostles — a place consecrated by martyrs' blood, a city to which the Fathers ventured as pilgrims, a city whose Church and bishop spoke with a singular authority.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Margherita Guarducci, The Primacy of the Church of Rome https://ignatius.com/the-primacy-of-the-church-of-rome-pcrp/
Rod Bennett, Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words https://ignatius.com/four-witnesses-fwecp/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
Please donate to this podcast! http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
Antioch, in so many ways, was the place where the lights first went on. It was the first city in the ancient world to have street lamps and unending night life. It was the city where the disciples were first called Christians. And it blazed brightly for centuries, in the lives and words of the Fathers: Ignatius, Theophilus, John Chrysostom.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/D.S. Wallace-Hadrill, Christian Antioch: A Study of Early Christian Thought in the East https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Antioch-Study-Early-Thought/dp/0521094364
Christine Kondoleon, Antioch: The Lost Ancient City https://www.amazon.com/Antioch-Christine-Kondoleon/dp/0691049327/
Glanville Downey, History of Antioch https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691652184/history-of-antioch
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
Jerusalem, the holy city — a city built with compact unity and beloved by the Apostles — was the first home of the Christian Church. Sacred to the Jews, it was for the early Christians a pilgrim destination. Melito and Egeria and Gregory of Nyssa visited there. Cyril reigned there as bishop. John of Damascus moved there. In any consideration of Christian communities, it must come first, because it was the origin and the model for all that came afterward.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, The Early Church in Jerusalem https://ffhl.org/early-christian-church-jerusalem/
History of the Church in Jerusalem https://www.atlantaserbs.com/learnmore/history/Jerusalem-church.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
For those who missed the YouTube livestream Q&A with Mike Aquilina on May 8th, 2023, here is the audio. It was a lively conversation where Mike fielded viewer questions about important cities of the early Church, early evidence for papal primacy, the role of charity in the early Church, Origen, the providential role of easy travel for the spread of the Gospel in the first centuries, and more.
We're a week into CatholicCulture.org's May fundraising campaign. Generous donors have offered a $50,000 matching grant, so any donation you make by May 24 will double in value! You can donate on our website or PayPal (tax-deductible). Donation links below:
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We’ll be doing more YouTube livestreams where viewers will be able to interact, ask questions and prompt discussion via the live chat box. Upcoming livestreams:
5/15, 8pm ET—Thomas Mirus & James Majewski (hosts,Catholic Culture Podcast, Catholic Culture Audiobooks, Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast)
5/22, 8pm ET—Phil Lawler & Jeff Mirus (CatholicCulture.org writers)
With this introductory episode we begin our exploration of the cities where the Fathers lived and taught. At first these were cities that raged against the Gospel and persecuted the Church. The Fathers brought them to faith. Each city was different from all the others—and each became more perfectly itself through its encounter with Jesus Christ. We can learn from the history.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:xs159yz4591/00002552_mixed.pdf
John Julius Norwich, Cities that Shaped the Ancient World https://www.amazon.com/Cities-that-Shaped-Ancient-World/dp/0500293406/
Rodney Stark, Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome https://www.amazon.com/Cities-God-Christianity-Movement-Conquered/dp/0061349887/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/
Christianity is the odd religion that does not require pilgrimage, but Christians do it anyway, and in great numbers, as they have since the earliest days of the Church. Many of the early Fathers made the journey to the holy sites. They trekked to the Holy Land to walk in Jesus’ footsteps and to Rome to honor Peter and Paul. How can we follow their example?
LINKS
Mike Aquilina’s 2023 pilgrimage to Rome https://www.pilgrimages.com/mikeaquilina/
Margherita Guarducci, The Primacy of the Church of Rome https://www.amazon.com/Primacy-Church-Rome-Documents-Reflections/dp/0898709229/
The Pilgrimage of Etheria [or Egeria] https://archive.org/details/pilgrimageofethe00mccliala
Jas Elsner and Ian Rutherford, Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods https://www.amazon.com/Pilgrimage-Graeco-Roman-Early-Christian-Antiquity/dp/0199237913/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
’Twas the night before Easter, and all through the Church every heart was stirring. The early Christians kept a Vigil that made a lasting impression. The symbols were elemental: fire, water, darkness, nakedness, music, dramatic preaching, surprising chalices, and more-than-marathon endurance. Prepare for your Easter Vigil by learning about theirs.
LINKS
Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha https://sachurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/On-Pascha-Melito-of-Sardis.pdf
Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha (another translation) https://www.kerux.com/doc/0401A1.asp
Eusebius of Caesarea, On the Celebration of Easter https://tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_on_easter.htm
St. Augustine, Sermon 227 https://stanselminstitute.org/files/SERMON%20227.pdf
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
Plato scorned manual labor. Aristotle believed that “no one who leads the life of a worker or laborer can practice virtue.” Plotinus, Celsus, and Herodotus agreed that work was ignoble and contemptible. Pagan religion reflected these precepts of the philosophers. In such a world, Christianity seemed revolutionary. The churches were full of laborers, who worshipped a Laborer—and whose Scriptures preserved NOT the syllogisms of philosophers, but the stories of people who got jobs done. Implicit in the writings of the Fathers is a radical and new idea: a theology of work.
LINKS
Paul Veyne, A History of Private Life, Volume I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium https://www.amazon.com/History-Private-Life-Pagan-Byzantium/dp/0674399749/
Jose H. Gomez, All You Who Labor: Towards a Spirituality of Work for the 21st Century https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndjlepp/vol20/iss2/11/
Mike Aquilina, Work, Play, Love: How the Mass Changed the Life of the First Christians https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/work-play-love-how-the-mass-changed-the-life-of-the-first-christians
Mike Aquilina, How Christianity Saved Civilization ...And Must Do So Again https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/how-christianity-saved-civilization-and-must-do-so-again
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
To Plato it was an island paradise. To Cicero it was the beginning of the Roman Empire. To Basil it was a name synonymous with luxury. To Augustine it was a place of natural marvels: a mountain that burned perpetually, but was never consumed. To Gregory the Great it was a shrine to his favorite martyrs. Modern Christians know Sicily mostly from the Godfather movies, so they know nothing of its rich Christian history. Till now. Listen up.
Links
John Julius Norwich, Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sicily/UECODQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=john%20julius%20norwich%2C%20sicily&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover
M.I. Finley, A History of Sicily https://archive.org/details/historyofsicily00finl_0
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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As long as there’s been Christian faith, there have been ascetics—athletes of prayer—and these athletes, both female and male, have sought ways to live in intentional community. Experiments in communal life went on in every corner of the Empire—in Egypt, Palestine, Rome, Cappadocia, Athens, Antioch, Africa—and involved the greatest names in the early Church.
LINKS
Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1699
Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Virgins https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2092
Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Widows https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2070
Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2272
Augustine of Hippo, Of Holy Virginity https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3280
John Cassian, Institutes https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2106
Palladius, Lausiac History https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/palladius_lausiac_02_text.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Denis (aka Dionysius) the Great, in the years he was bishop, faced many of the terrors of the ancient world, all while the empire was persecuting Christians to the death. He saw his congregations reduced by death and defection. He saw the ranks of the clergy reduced to just a handful of priests. Yet he lived to see the day when the Church of Alexandria in Egypt revived to become a world leader once again.
LINKS
Eusebius, Church History Church History (Book VI) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm
Eusebius, Church History Church History (Book VII) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250107.htm
Kyle Harper The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Rome-Climate-Disease-Empire/dp/0691192065/
William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples https://www.amazon.com/Plagues-Peoples-William-H-McNeill/dp/0385121229/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Western Christianity is fundamentally African in the way that Eastern Christianity is fundamentally Greek. It was in Africa that a vigorous Christian Latin culture first developed. Carthage had a Latin liturgy for a full century before Rome switched over from Greek. Africa gave the Church great saints and Fathers such as Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius—and the greatest of all: Augustine. For a Western Christian, to know early African Christianity is to know one’s own roots.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, Africa and the Early Church: The Almost-Forgotten Roots of Catholic Christianity https://www.amazon.com/Africa-Early-Church-Almost-Forgotten-Christianity/dp/1645852598/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
The calendar is a catechism. Every feast is a lesson in doctrine. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, like Christmas, rose to prominence at a time of deep division in the Church, as some Christians disputed Jesus’ true divinity. Both celebrations served as a kind of credal statement—and they still do today.
LINKS
Kilian McDonnell, OSB, The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan: The Trinitarian and Cosmic Order of Salvation https://www.amazon.com/Baptism-Jesus-Jordan-Trinitarian-Salvation/dp/0814653073
Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Mike Aquilina, The Feasts: How the Church Year Forms Us as Catholics https://www.amazon.com/Feasts-Church-Year-Forms-Catholics/dp/080413992X/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
In Greek and Roman epics, the heroes are men who conquer by violence. But in early Christianity the epic heroes were often heroines — specifically those who had suffered violence rather than submit to a patriarchy that despised them for what they were. The virgin martyrs refused to conform to society’s idea of womanhood. In a time of demographic winter, they refused to marry and bear children for the good of the empire. They consecrated their lives to Christ instead. Thus they were seen as a threat to traditional family values. What would happen to the world if all women began to behave like Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, and Anastasia?
LINKS
St. Ambrose, Concerning Virginity https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/34071.htm
St. Jerome, Letter 130 https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001130.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
The questions arise every few years, and each time they're news. Who were the "deaconesses" in the early Church? What was their role? Why did the role vanish in the first millennium? Should the role be revived? The questions are never answered to everyone's satisfaction. Why must that be so?
"Divergent expectations in the deaconess debate: Interview with Sister Sara Butler" https://angelusnews.com/faith/divergent-expectations-in-the-deaconess-debate/
International Theological Commission, "From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles" (2002) https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_pro_05072004_diaconate_en.html
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
Many ideas that seem peculiarly modern actually have deep Christian roots. This is true of much of the terminology of addiction and recovery. Today we look for the roots of “intervention” in the Gospel and the works of the Fathers—and find applications for ordinarily life, even beyond the orbit of addiction.
LINKS
Joseph Carola, S.J., Augustine of Hippo: The Role of the Laity in Ecclesial Reconciliation https://www.amazon.com/Augustine-Hippo-Ecclesial-Reconciliation-Gregoriana/dp/8878390232/
“Fraternal Correction,” Catholic Encyclopedia https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04394a.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
The Fathers saw a profound connection between Eucharistic communion and social concerns — between liturgy and charity. It’s evident in the works of the great saints of antiquity, from Ignatius of Antioch and Justin Martyr to Tertullian and John Chrysostom. It's spelled out even in the ancient liturgical books.
LINKS
Tertullian, Apology XXXIX https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1662
Justin Martyr, First Apology LXVII https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1610
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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The early Church initiated many struggles for the cause of social justice: opposition to slavery, capital punishment, and other institutions of pagan society. But the condemnation of abortion was singular in its consistency and vehemence, from the very beginning of the Gospel proclamation.
LINKS
The Church’s original social justice struggle https://angelusnews.com/faith/the-churchs-long-fight-against-abortion/
Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish and Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World by Michael J. Gorman https://www.amazon.com/Abortion-Early-Church-Christian-Greco-Roman/dp/1579101828/
Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West by John M. Riddle https://www.amazon.com/Eves-Herbs-History-Contraception-Abortion/dp/0674270266/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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The last of the classic councils was, like so many of the others, a comic production worthy of the Marx Brothers—and simultaneously a tragedy worthy of Tolstoy. In the eighth-century run-up to the Second Council of Nicaea we encounter an emperor known as “Poopyhead,” who summons a synod known as the “Headless Council”—all for the sake of forbidding the use of devotional images. That’s where it started anyway. Eventually the emperor got around to condemning any honor paid to saints, and then he desecrated their relics, removing their bodies from tombs and casting them into the sea. He tried to ban celibacy, and he closed monasteries and turned them into hotels. Second Nicaea, in 787, was called to repair all that damage.
LINKS
Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3819.htm
Canons of the Second Council of Nicaea https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum07.htm
St. John of Damascus, Apologia Against Those Who Decry Holy Images https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/johndamascus-images.asp
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Leave it to intellectuals (in any age) to “solve” the world’s problems in ways that create bigger problems. Monothelitism was a religious idea concocted by policy wonks in boardrooms. It was supposed to remedy the doctrinal differences that divided Constantinople from Egypt. It failed to do that, and it also provoked a schism between Constantinople and all of western Christendom. The Third Council of Constantinople was called in 680 to clean up the mess.
LINKS
Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, God Sent His Son: A Contemporary Christology https://www.amazon.com/God-Sent-Christoph-Cardinal-Schonborn/dp/158617410X/
Maximus the Confessor, On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ (an anthology of his works) https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Mystery-Jesus-Christ/dp/088141249X/
Maximus the Confessor: Selected Writings https://www.amazon.com/Maximus-Confessor-Selected-Writings-Spirituality/dp/0809126591/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Every council represents a crisis — often provoked by strong and eccentric personalities. But Constantinople II, in 553 AD, may have been the strangest of all. At the center of the drama were an imperial power couple, Justinian and Theodora, and a weak pope who vacillated between cowardice and duty.
LINKS
Extracts from the Acts https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3812.htm
Biography of Justinian https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08578b.htm
Biography of Pope Vigilius https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15427b.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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What happened when God took flesh? A simple question roused hundreds of speculative answers, most concerning the “person” and “nature” (or natures) of Jesus Christ. But the philosophical terms themselves were slippery, and mistranslations only made matters worse. The wild speculation came to a stop at the Council of Chalcedon, thanks to a letter from Pope Leo the Great. His “Tome” defined terms with abundant clarity. Since then, in mainstream Christianity, Orthodox Christology has been Chalcedonian Christology. The Tome is a necessary point of reference for all subsequent doctrine of Jesus Christ.
LINKS Leo the Great, Letter 28 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2156
Leo the Great, Letter 93 (to the Council of Chalcedon) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2157
Letter 98 (From the Council of Chalcedon to Pope Leo) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2159
Leo the Great, Letter 162 (“The decrees of Chalcedon and Nicæa are identical and final”) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2145
Leo the Great, The Tome (text) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5344
Leo the Great, The Tome (audiobook) https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-leo-great-tome-leo/
Acts of the Council of Chalcedon https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3811.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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From the distance of more than a millennium and a half, Nestorius can seem a comic character. He was a verbally fussy man with an uncanny knack for alienating people. Within days of his installation as bishop of Constantinople, he had offended the imperial family, the monks, and the nobles, but also the common people. He also caused a major fire in the city. But when he tried to suppress devotion to Mary as “Mother of God,” he invited all his enemies to join forces against him—because such a campaign affected not only the status of Mary, but also the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Nestorius forced a crisis that played out in grotesque (and humorous) ways at the Council of Ephesus in 431.
LINKS
Cyril of Alexandria, Five Tomes against Nestorius https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_against_nestorius_00_intro.htm
Extracts from the Acts, Council of Ephesus https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5347
Nestorius, The Bazaar of Heracleides https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/nestorius_bazaar_0_eintro.htm
Nestorius, Letters to Pope Celestine https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/nestorius_two_letters_01.htm
Socrates Scholasticus, Church History, Book VII https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2884
John A. McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy https://www.amazon.com/Saint-Cyril-Alexandria-Christological-Controversy/dp/0881418633/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Nicaea didn't resolve the Arian crisis. In fact, it provoked a riot of reactions — endless variations on the Arian theme. Imperial force only made matters worse. For a half-century, conflict raged. The situation seemed hopeless until Theodosius summoned bishops to meet in 381.
LINKS
Socrates Scholasticus, Church History (Book V) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2884
Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History (Book VII) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2885
Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History (Book V) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2886
Gregory Nazianzen, “Oration XLII: The Last Farewell in the Presence of the One Hundred and Fifty Bishops” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2452
John Henry Newman, Arians of the Fourth Century https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/index.html
Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology https://www.amazon.com/Nicaea-Its-Legacy-Fourth-Century-Trinitarian/dp/0198755058/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Nicaea didn't resolve the Arian crisis. In fact, it provoked a riot of reactions — endless variations on the Arian theme. Imperial force only made matters worse. For a half-century, conflict raged. The situation seemed hopeless until Theodosius summoned bishops to meet in 381.
LINKS
Socrates Scholasticus, Church History (Book V) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2884
Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History (Book VII) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2885
Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History (Book V) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2886
Gregory Nazianzen, “Oration XLII: The Last Farewell in the Presence of the One Hundred and Fifty Bishops” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2452
John Henry Newman, Arians of the Fourth Century https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/index.html
Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology https://www.amazon.com/Nicaea-Its-Legacy-Fourth-Century-Trinitarian/dp/0198755058/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Nicaea (325 A.D.) is the first of the ecumenical councils, not only in chronology, but also in importance. It occupies a certain primacy. The phrase "Nicene Faith" is sometimes used as an equivalent term for classic Christian doctrine. That's how we see it after centuries of development. But what did it mean to those who attended?
LINKS
Eusebius of Caesarea, Oration in Praise of the Emperor Constantine https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2883
Eusebius of Caesarea, The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2881
Athanasius, De Synodis https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3086
John Henry Newman, Arians of the Fourth Century https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/index.html
Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology https://www.amazon.com/Nicaea-Its-Legacy-Fourth-Century-Trinitarian/dp/0198755058/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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When the Church is in crisis, its bishops meet in council. Since the generation of the Apostles, this has been the customary way of settling major disputes over doctrine and discipline. In the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15, the Twelve met with certain elders and chosen experts to exercise an authority that was different from the authority that any of them possessed individually. This established a practice for the ages to follow. The councils in the time of the Fathers—the first seven ecumenical councils—are considered authoritative by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches. In this episode, we look at the pre-history of those councils and consider their definitions and authority.
LINKS
Cyprian of Carthage, On the Seventh Council of Carthage https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1719
Canons of the Council of Ancyra (A.D. 314) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3802.htm
Canons of the Council of Necaesarea (A.D. 315) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3803.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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In the first three centuries of Christian history, the practice of the faith was a capital crime, and many gave their lives as the ultimate testimony. The Church called them “witnesses”—in Greek, martures, whence we get the English word martyr. To speak of martyrdom, the early Fathers employed language usually reserved only for the Eucharist. So what does martyrdom have to do with the Mass?
LINKS
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “Eucharist and Mission,” in Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith: The Church as Communion, pp. 112-120 https://ignatius.com/pilgrim-fellowship-of-faith-pffp/
Finbarr G. Clancy, "Imitating the Mysteries That You Celebrate: Martyrdom and Eucharist in the Early Patristic Period,” in Vincent Twomey, ed., The Great Persecution: The Proceedings of the Fifth Patristic Conference, Maynooth https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/archives/the-great-persecution/
Robin Darling Young, In Procession before the World: Martyrdom as Public Liturgy in Early Christianity https://www.marquette.edu/mupress/Young.shtml
Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0107.htm
Anonymous, The Martyrdom of Polycarp https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0102.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Music formed the early Christians in faith. It catechized them. Inspired them. Unified them. Healed them. The Fathers — from Ignatius of Antioch to John of Damascus — testify to this fact. Many of them wrote music. Augustine wrote a book about music. At a time when most people could not read, music was the most effective delivery system for doctrine. The decisions of the councils would have been dead letters apart from their placement in musical settings. In this episode, early Christian music finally gets its due recognition.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, How the Choir Converted the World: Through Hymns, With Hymns, and In Hymns https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/how-the-choir-converted-the-world-through-hymns-with-hymns-and-in-hymns
Mike Aquilina, How the Choir Converted the World: Through Hymns, With Hymns, and In Hymns (audio book) https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/audio-cd-how-the-choir-converted-the-world-through-hymns-with-hymns-and-in-hymns
Ephrem the Syrian, The Nisibene Hymns https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3702.htm
Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns for the Feast of Epiphany https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3704.htm
Ephrem the Syrian, The Pearl -- Seven Hymns on the Faith https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3705.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Why is it big news when someone claims to find a fragment of a lost "gospel"? Why do people say that these ancient apocrypha threaten to overturn everything Christians believe? In the second century, some of these pseudonymous books appeared and quickly landed in the remainder bin, called into question by giants such as Irenaeus and Tertullian. They're news today because of a modern myth, crafted by one of the renowned literary critics of the 20th century — and sustained by ivy-league celebrities. Paul Mankowski, S.J., "The Pagels Imposture," Catholic Culture https://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=43736 Amy Weiss-Meyer, "What Ever Happened to the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife?" The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/08/ariel-sabar-what-happened-to-the-gospel-of-jesus-wife/615160/ Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Most lowly and most loved, deacons played supremely important roles in the early Church. Think Lawrence of Rome. Think Ephrem of Syria. They were consistently voted most likely to be pope. Jerome wryly observed that when a bishop wanted to demote a deacon, he ordained him to the priesthood.
LINKS
Ignatius of Antioch, The Epistle to the Trallians https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1630
Ignatius of Antioch, The Epistle to the Philadelphians https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1632
Jerome, Letter 146 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2403
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Ever wonder how Bible study was done in the early Church? It was done with chains. The CATENA did the work that Bible software does for us today. It did the work of concordances and even entire shelves of commentaries. Catena is Latin for chain, and the links in these long-ago chains were extracts from the sermons and letters of earlier interpreters of Scripture.
LINKS
Roger Pearse’s blog entries on ancient catenae https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/category/catena/
St. Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea https://www.ecatholic2000.com/catena/untitled-111.shtml
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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When asked what’s wrong with the Church, commentators from Pope Francis to Russell Shaw will blame an elusive beast named “clericalism.” But what is clericalism, and where did it come from? In this episode we track the beast to its birthplace, the Church of the fourth century. Our native guides are Augustine, John Chrysostom, and others—who offer us good counsel for defeating it in our own time.
LINKS
Anonymous, The Epistle to Diognetus https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0101.htm
Minucius Felix, Octavius https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0410.htm
Joseph Carola, S.J., Augustine of Hippo: The Role of the Laity in Ecclesial Reconciliation https://www.amazon.com/Augustine-Hippo-Ecclesial-Reconciliation-Gregoriana/dp/8878390232/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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The hospital arose as a Christian institution, dependent on the Christian principles of charity and hospitality. There were no pre-Christian hospitals. This episode tells the story of how it happened—how the early Church changed the practice of medicine forever.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative: The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine as We Know It https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/mike-aquilina-the-healing-imperative
Gary B. Ferngren, Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity https://www.amazon.com/Medicine-Health-Care-Early-Christianity/dp/1421420066/
Timothy S. Miller, The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire https://www.amazon.com/Hospital-Byzantine-Supplement-Bulletin-Medicine/dp/0801856574/
Andrew T. Crislip, From Monastery to Hospital: Christian Monasticism and the Transformation of Health Care in Late Antiquity https://www.amazon.com/Monastery-Hospital-Christian-Monasticism-Transformation/dp/0472114743/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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The Empire faced a crisis in the year 9 A.D. Romans were not reproducing. They weren’t even marrying. Caesar Augustus recognized that this posed a dire threat to the Roman way of life—the empire’s cultural and intellectual heritage, and its homeland security. He made new laws to encourage fertility. He even proposed a pagan “theology of the body.” His successors made more laws. All failed, and eventually it was Christianity that restored and revived the Roman family and Roman world. Here’s the fascinating story of how it happened.
LINKS
Mike Aquilina, The Christian family’s radical roots https://angelusnews.com/faith/the-christian-familys-radical-roots/
Mike Aquilina, How young people shaped Christianity https://angelusnews.com/faith/how-young-people-shaped-christianity/
Mike Aquilina, The Church’s original social justice struggle https://angelusnews.com/faith/the-churchs-long-fight-against-abortion/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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John of Damascus, the last of the Fathers, was born into a world newly conquered. In the seventh century, many lands that were once home to Eastern Christianity, had fallen to the invading armies of Arab Muslims. John’s father and grandfather, both devout Christians, served as treasury officials for the Muslim caliphate. So John was able to provide a rare outsider’s view of Islam when it was new on the world scene. In Christian history he is known as the great defender of the practice of venerating images. In more than a millennium, his compact, complete treatises on the subject have never been surpassed. But his work includes much more: sermons, hymns, and a handy compendium of philosophy and theology. John’s life is a brilliant closing act of the Era of the Fathers. This is the final episode of season 1 of this podcast. Next time we meet, we’ll launch season two by exploring particular themes and stories from the time of the early Church.
LINKS
John of Damascus, Apologia Against Those Who Decry Holy Images https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/johndamascus-images.asp#PART%20I
John of Damascus, Three Sermons on the Assumption https://ccel.org/ccel/damascus/icons/icons.i.vii.html
John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Books I-II https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2857
John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Books III-IV https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2858
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Isidore of Seville lived at a time when the memory (or fantasy) of a homogeneous Roman culture was rapidly fading. It was a time to gather the last of the classical harvest into the barns. The conquering “barbarians,” the Visigoths, had now been ruling in Spain for centuries. They were no longer foreigners. Rather, a new culture was forming, a “melting pot” of Roman and northern elements. A man of holy ambition, Isidore laid strong foundations for the medieval European culture that would follow.
LINKS
Isidore of Seville, The Etymologies https://sfponline.org/Uploads/2002/st%20isidore%20in%20english.pdf
Isidore of Seville, On the Ecclesiastical Offices https://www.google.com/books/edition/Isidore_of_Seville/_YhkqmfNeIIC?hl=en&gbpv=1
Ernest Brehaut, An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville (biography, with a detailed critical appreciation of his works and partial translation of The Etymologies) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51511
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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By the seventh century, Christian thinkers of East and West were settling into scholastic methods, synthesizing and systematizing the thought of their Greek or Latin forebears. Maximus represents the best mind (by far) in this movement. Greek by origin, he spent decades living in Latin lands. His writing reflected the beauty and brilliance of piety and theology on both sides of the Mediterranean. In Maximus (to steal a phrase from Pope John Paul II) the Church breathed with both lungs. He marshaled all the resources of East and West to oppose the emerging Monothelite heresy. The emperor, meanwhile, pinned his hopes on the heresy to unite the empire against rising Islam—and Maximus suffered brutal torture and exile.
LINKS
Anthony Marco, doctoral dissertation, Consecrate the World to God: Maximus the Confessor on the “Secular” and Vatican II’s Theology of the Laity https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2987&context=etd
Andrew J. Summerson, Audio: Exegesis of the Human Heart: Narrating the Emotional Life of Christians with Maximus the Confessor https://sheptytskyinstitute.ca/exegesis-of-the-human-heart-narrating-the-emotional-life-of-christians-with-maximus-the-confessor/
Maximus the Confessor, On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ (an anthology of his works) https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Mystery-Jesus-Christ/dp/088141249X/
Maximus the Confessor: Selected Writings https://www.amazon.com/Maximus-Confessor-Selected-Writings-Spirituality/dp/0809126591/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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His name retains its greatness, even in modern times—even for Christians who don’t know much history. They know Gregorian Chant, and maybe Gregorian Masses. Who was the Gregory behind those monuments? Born into nobility, he held vast estates in Italy and Sicily, but gave them up to be a monk. Then he gave up being a monk so that he could serve the Church. Elected pope, he recast the papacy as a full-time exercise of servitude. He was “servant of the servants of God,” and as such he reformed the clergy, and the liturgy. He directed foreign missions and set lasting standards for inculturation of the faith. He did all this while he was very ill and often combined to bed. His greatness was manifest to his contemporaries and to every age after.
LINKS
Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job http://www.lectionarycentral.com/gregorymoraliaindex.html
Gregory the Great, Dialogues https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gregory_00_dialogues_eintro.htm
Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2223
Epistle XII: to John, Bishop of Syracuse (on reform of the liturgy) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3719
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Benedict was not the first monk to compose a rule for living in community — but he's certainly the most influential. He wrote the Rule that the Emperor Charlemagne would propose as guidebook for all monks in the West. Yet Benedict himself was self-effacing in the extreme, and he remains elusive for historians. Lately, he has emerged as a patron and model for people whose civilization could be entering a Dark Age. Know anybody like that?
LINKS
Benedict of Nursia, The Rule https://ccel.org/ccel/benedict/rule/rule
Gregory the Great, Life of Our Most Holy Father St. Benedict https://ccel.org/ccel/gregory/life_rule/life_rule
Mark the Monk (a disciple of Benedict), Poem in tribute to St. Benedict https://ccel.org/ccel/gregory/life_rule/life_rule.iv.html
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Forget the shamrocks. Pour the green beer down the sink, and drive the snakes from the Emerald Isle of your imagination. Listen up and encounter the real St. Patrick, author of two passionate, fascinating Christian works—deserving of a place with the Church Fathers. Patrick arrived in pagan Ireland in the fifth century, first as a slave and then as an itinerant bishop. By the end of his life, Ireland was a Christian nation.
LINKS
Patrick of Ireland, Confessio https://www.confessio.ie/etexts/confessio_english#
Patrick of Ireland, Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus https://www.confessio.ie/etexts/epistola_english#
James F. Kenney, The sources for the early history of Ireland: an introduction and guide https://archive.org/details/sourcesforearlyh0000kenn
Fr. Billy Swan, “‘I Am Patrick’ Is Perhaps the Best Film Yet on Ireland’s Greatest Saint,” Word on Fire, March 17, 2020 https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/i-am-patrick-is-perhaps-the-best-film-yet-on-irelands-greatest-saint/26861/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Peter Chrysologus is known as the “Doctor of Homilies,” and he always preached with brevity. Every word was golden. He was archbishop of Ravenna during that city's brief term as capital of the Western empire. His sermons rang like poems, rich with biblical insight and glimpses of ordinary life in a fifth-century urban center.
LINKS
Peter Chrysologus, a sermon in the Office of Readings https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=173
Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 148 http://www.liturgies.net/saints/peterchrysologus/readings.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 148 http://www.liturgies.net/saints/peterchrysologus/readings.htm
Romanus the Melodist looms large from his lifetime in the sixth century. Today he is much sung and little known—at least with certainty. Beautiful legends have filled in the cracks of his biography. According to one, he was tone-deaf and non-musical when heaven granted him the gifts of composition and vocal performance. He went on to compose many verse homilies, kontakia, which are still sung in the Eastern churches today. Having lived in Homs, and then Beirut and Constantinople, he introduced Syriac forms and methods into Byzantine liturgical music.
LINKS
Romanus the Melodist page at Hymnary.org https://hymnary.org/person/Romanus1?tab=texts
Pope Benedict XVI on Romanus the Melodist https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=8216
Romanus on the Resurrection, sung performance https://youtu.be/XT-igWEsIh4
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Though prolific in his words and prodigious in his deeds, Leo was utterly self-effacing. Classically educated, he never quoted the classics. He preached with Gospel simplicity. He strove always to let Christ shine through his sermons and his letters. Yet he made history for three world-changing interventions. It was Leo who stopped Attila the Hun’s rampage through Europe. It was Leo who put a decisive end to the ancient heresies about the natures of Christ. And it was Leo who kept the barbarian Vandals from murdering the Romans and burning the city. Tradition calls him “the Great.” He earned the title.
LINKS
Leo the Great, Sermon LXXXII: on the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2206
Leo the Great, Letter XCV: to Pulcheria Augusta https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2158
Leo the Great, Tome of Leo Audiobook https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-leo-great-tome-leo/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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All Christians respected the authority of Scripture, but already in the fifth century the Church was riven by conflicting interpretations of Scripture. A monk in Gaul, Vincent of Lerins, developed a formula to determine true doctrine from false. "All possible care must be taken," he said, "that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all." Conservative by temperament, Vincent nonetheless allowed for development in religion through the ages. He emphasized the special role of the ancient Fathers as witnesses to authentic tradition. Thus he provided the foundation for the study of patristics — and the production of this podcast!
LINKS
Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3506.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Cyril's uncle was the notorious Theophilus, a ruthless and fiercely competitive churchman — and the old manhood handpicked his nephew to be his successor as bishop of Alexandria. Cyril learned from Theophilus how to orchestrate an international incident and carry it through to the victorious end. But he was very much his own man: a towering intellect, the mastermind of the Council of Ephesus, a prodigious commentator on the Scriptures, and a saint of a different sort.
LINKS
Socrates Scholasticus, The Ecclesiastical History (Book VII, the story of Cyril and the Council of Ephesus) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2884
Works of Cyril in translation https://tertullian.org/fathers/
John McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy https://www.amazon.com/Saint-Cyril-Alexandria-Christological-Controversy/dp/0881418633
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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The great ascetic movement was in its first years of explosive growth when John Cassian journeyed from West to East. He visited the communities of monks and hermits in Palestine and Egypt. Though he sought a quiet life, he got caught up in international intrigue and adventure. In his later years he drew together the memories of his years in the desert, and composed two works on the cultivation of virtue and the practices of prayer.
LINKS
John Cassian, The Conferences (Part 1) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2107
John Cassian, The Institutes https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2106
John Cassian, Seven Books on the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2097
Gennadius, Lives of Illustrious Men (see Chapter LXII) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3079
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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In this bonus episode originally from the Catholic Culture Podcast, CatholicCulture.org’s director of podcasts, Thomas V. Mirus, interviews voice actor James T. Majewski (Catholic Culture Audiobooks) and author Mike Aquilina (Way of the Fathers) about how they make their shows and the effect reading and studying the Church Fathers has had on them personally.
Contents
[2:15] James’s training in philosophy and acting as preparation for narrating the Fathers
[7:00] How Mike meandered into a career writing about the Fathers
[9:27] The original idea for audiobooks and podcasts at The Catholic Culture
[15:33] How Mike distills scholarship into an accessible and edifying presentation of early Church history
[21:20] The accessibility and affordability of creating a good-sounding podcast
[24:16] James’s process for preparing nuanced readings of the Fathers at a rapid pace
[33:03] Mike’s and James’s recourse to the intercession of the holy authors they study
[37:38] St. John Henry Newman and the early Fathers as masters of media
[42:40] The mastery of the Fathers’ work and its relevance today
[45:55] The spiritual effects of narrating the writings of saints
Links
Support CatholicCulture.org’s podcasting efforts https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Catholic Culture Podcast https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/catholic-culture-podcast/
Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/audiobooks
James T. Majewski https://www.jamestmajewski.com/
Mike Aquilina https://fathersofthechurch.com/
Prudentius is the Latin poet most praised from the ancient Church. Phenomenally creative, he invented new poetic forms and genres—and established artistic standards that would hold through the Middle Ages. Scholars as varied as C.S. Lewis and Robert Wilken call him “the first Christian poet,” the first great representative of a real Christian literature. Compared to Prudentius, all earlier Christian poets were dabblers. Upon his model depended such later luminaries as Bunyan, Milton, and Spenser.
LINKS
The Hymns of Prudentius (Cathemerinon) https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14959/14959-h/14959-h.htm
Latin text of two works by Prudentius https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/prud.html
Prudentius’s page at Hymnary. org https://hymnary.org/person/Prudentius_AC
Study of Prudentius by F.J.E. Raby https://archive.org/details/historyofchristi2edunse_t5b7/page/44/mode/2up
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
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Paulinus was tagged as the most promising poet of his generation—by the most famous poet of the preceding generation. He was supposed to carry the torch forward for his art. And he did, but not in the way the old school had wanted or expected. Instead he fashioned a new esthetic for the empire, a deeply Christian appropriation of the old classical forms. Along the way, he formed a religious community and then served as bishop.
LINKS
Letters Of St. Paulinus Of Nola https://archive.org/details/letters-of-st.-paulinus-of-nola
The poems of St. Paulinus of Nola https://archive.org/details/poemsofstpaulinu0040paul
Hymn “Another Year Completed” in English translation https://hymnary.org/person/Paulinus_Nola
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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No sane person ever proposed John Chrysostom as a model of diplomacy. His name means "Golden Mouth" and reflects his eloquence. His words, however, proved his undoing when he chose to preach a word of criticism against the Empress Eudoxia. He soon found himself battling for his position as bishop and then for his life.
LINKS
Works by John Chrysostom https://www.catholicculture.org/search/searchResults.cfm?querynum=1&searchid=2126796&page=1&showcount=10
Letters to Olympias https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2058
Palladius, Dialogue concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/palladius_dialogus_02_text.htm
J.N.D. Kelly, Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom―Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Mouth-Chrysostom_Ascetic-Preacher-Bishop/dp/0801485738/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Chrysostom means “golden mouth,” and only one man has credibly borne the title. John Chrysostom may have been the greatest pulpit preacher in Church history. In his lifetime he was also renowned for his asceticism and spiritual counsel In recent years, however, he’s been maligned — and mischaracterized — for his views on marriage and sex. Here we set the record straight with an account of his developing understanding of the one-flesh union and its particular graces.
LINKS
Works by John Chrysostom https://www.catholicculture.org/search/searchResults.cfm?querynum=1&searchid=2123634&page=1&showcount=10
John Chrysostom, On Marriage and Family Life https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Family-English-Ancient-Greek/dp/0913836869
John Chrysostom, a brief selection of quotations on marriage http://www.scborromeo.org/papers/St.%20John%20Chrysostom%20on%20Marriage.pdf
John Chrysostom, Two Letters to Theodore After His Fall https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2059
Palladius, Dialogue concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/palladius_dialogus_02_text.htm
J.N.D. Kelly, Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom―Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Mouth-Chrysostom_Ascetic-Preacher-Bishop/dp/0801485738/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
When Augustine's story is told, it too often ends with his baptism. But the drama of his later years is no less moving. He was as introspective at the end as he had been in his Confessions decades before. He gave his life and work a thoroughgoing review, even as he produced what many consider his masterpiece. His City of God marked the close of an age and the twilight of a brilliant life.
LINKS
Works by St. Augustine on Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/audiobook_authors_titles.cfm
Saint Augustine. Works and Links (in several languages) http://www.augustinus.it/links/inglese/index.htm
Augustine, Reconsiderations (Retractationes) https://archive.org/details/retractationesof00elle/page/n5/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater
Augustine, City of God https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3274
Allan D. Fitzgerald, O.S.A., Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia https://www.amazon.com/Augustine-Through-Ages-Allan-Fitzgerald/dp/080283843X/
Erich Przywara, An Augustine Synthesis https://www.amazon.com/Augustine-Synthesis/dp/1625649363/
Vernon J. Bourke, The Essential Augustine https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Augustine-Saint-Hippo/dp/0915144077
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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The drama of Augustine’s life hardly ended with his baptism. The years that followed included his ordination-by-mob, an attempt on his life, and wars of words with at least four major heresies. His years were breathless adventure and busyness, and yet they yielded 44 volumes of work that continues to exercise a profound influence—no only on Christian theology, but on civilization. This is the second of three episodes on his life.
LINKS
Works by St. Augustine on Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/audiobook_authors_titles.cfm
Saint Augustine. Works and Links (in several languages) http://www.augustinus.it/links/inglese/index.htm
Augustine, On the Trinity https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3276
Augustine, The Correction of the Donatists https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3296
Augustine, Of the Morals of the Catholic Church and of the Morals of the Manichaeans https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3292
Augustine, On Christian Doctrine https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3275
Augustine, On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3309
Erich Przywara, An Augustine Synthesis https://www.amazon.com/Augustine-Synthesis/dp/1625649363/
Vernon J. Bourke, The Essential Augustine https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Augustine-Saint-Hippo/dp/0915144077
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Augustine of Hippo is a name that appears on any short list of the most influential intellectuals in the history of the world. He seemed to live several productive lifetimes in the course of his own. In this first of three episodes on Augustine, we examine his early years — from his childhood through his conversion to Christ at age 31. We also consider the profound influence of his mother, Monica.
LINKS
Works by St. Augustine on Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/audiobook_authors_titles.cfm
Augustine, The Confessions https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3102
Possidius, Life of Augustine http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/possidius_life_of_augustine_02_text.htm
Saint Augustine: A Voice For All Generations, a documentary film on the young life of St. Augustine https://youtu.be/32bFPD36M8g
Torchlighters: The Augustine Story, an animated film for children, on the saint's young life https://youtu.be/IBL6HjC0FiU
John J. O'Meara, The Young Augustine, an excellent biography https://www.amazon.com/Young-Augustine-John-J-OMeara/dp/0818908335/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Jerome is renowned for his biblical studies and translations, The Church invokes him as Doctor, Father, and Saint. Yet he is just as famous for his sharpness in dispute. He clashed with Augustine and Rufinus, disdained Ambrose and Chrysostom. His put-downs stand with the best of Mark Twain and Groucho Marx.
Links
Justin McClain’s splendid collection, The Quotable Saint Jerome, https://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Saint-Jerome/dp/0813233216/
J.N.D. Kelly’s biography, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies, https://www.amazon.com/Jerome-His-Life-Writings-Controversies/dp/156563084X/
Jerome, Letter 57: to Pammachius on the Best Method of Translating https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2362
Jerome, Against Vigilantius (who rejected the veneration of relics and other traditional practices) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2317
Jerome, The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary, against Helvidius https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2314
Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men (an early work of patristics) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3078/
Catholic Culture Audiobooks reading Against Helvidius: On the Perpetual Virginity of Mary https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-jerome-against-helvidius-on-perpetual-virginity-mary/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Didymus lost his sight at age four, and yet he became one of the most respected theologians on earth. This was in the fourth century, more than a millennium before Braille, audio tech, or other accommodations. Among his renowned disciples were Jerome, Rufinus, and Palladius. His life was long and full, intensely engaged in the controversies surrounding the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation. His story should inspire anyone who hears it. And the story isn’t over yet.
Links
Jerome tells the story of Didymus and Anthony https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2369
Palladius on Didymus (XXVI) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2886
Sozomen on Didymus https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2885
Socrates Scholasticus on Didymus (XXV)
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2884
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Epiphanius was a master of many languages and a scholar of profound biblical culture. He had a passion for pure doctrine—and a pure loathing for error in all its forms. He labored through a long life to root heresy out of the Church. He distrusted classical literature because of the taint of idolatry. He compiled a reference work he called his “Medicine Chest,” diagnosing erroneous doctrines as “snakebites” and then prescribing cures from the pharmacy of true doctrine. In pursuing clarity, he forced Christians to take sides. But he didn’t always take into account his own capacity to misjudge, and his zealotry sometimes led to unnecessary division. In one case it helped bring about the downfall of a great saint.
Links
Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion https://archive.org/details/PanarionEpiphaniusCOMPLETE/page/n323/mode/2up
Epiphanius of Salamis, Weights and Measures http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/epiphanius_weights_01_eintro.htm
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Cyril served as bishop during ugly times. The Church was divided, and suspicion was universal. He suffered false accusation, conspiracy, and exile. Yet he was able to see supernatural beauty shining through natural signs in the Church’s liturgy: bread and wine, oil and water, breath and gesture. He is history’s great practitioner of the art of mystagogy—guidance in the sacramental mysteries. His lectures, in fact, cover all the basics of Christian life: creed, commandments, prayer, and sacraments. Eyewitnesses tell us that his hearers applauded when he taught. His lectures still edify and entertain more than a millennium and a half after their first delivery.
Links
Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatechesis https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2408
Cyril of Jerusalem, On Baptism https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2428
Cyril of Jerusalem, On the Body and Blood of Christ https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2430
Cyril of Jerusalem, On the Sacred Liturgy and Communion https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2431
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Ambrose of Milan, more than any other figure, is invoked in the West as the model for church-state relations. He’s the one who said: “The emperor is within the Church, not above the Church.” And he said it with deeds as well as words. He said it in private letters and public demonstrations. He said it through direct confrontation and civil disobedience. A former politician himself, he had a keen understanding of the game—and in the late fourth century the stakes were very high.
Links
Ambrose, Sermon against Auxentius on the Giving Up of the Basilicas https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2075
Ambrose, Letter XXI to Valentinian I https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2074
Ambrose, Letter XX to his sister Marcella https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2073
Ambrose Letter LI to Theodosius https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2079
Ambrose, On the Mysteries https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2090
Augustine, Confessions, Book 8.7.15 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3102
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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There’s no anti-Christian like an ex-Christian, and there was no figure in antiquity like the Emperor Julian. He promoted the return of paganism as the official religion of the Roman Empire. But it was a strange paganism, modeled on the Christian Church. Julian began by making it difficult for Christians to work in professions like education, law, and military. His methods were mostly bloodless. He knew that martyrs made Christianity strong. It was better he thought, to marginalize believers, neutralizing their influence, pushing them out of public life.
Links
Julian the Apostate, Against the Galileans http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/julian_apostate_galileans_0_intro.htm
Julian the Apostate, Oration upon the Sovereign Sun http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/julian_apostate_1_sun.htm
Gregory Nazianzen, “Oration 4: First Invective Against Julian” http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gregory_nazianzen_2_oration4.htm
Adrian Murdoch, The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World https://www.amazon.com/Last-Pagan-Julian-Apostate-Ancient/dp/1594772266/
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Gregory of Nyssa was born into a family of high achievers. His brother was Basil the Great; his sister was Macrina the Younger. In Gregory’s young life, however, he was something of a disappointment. It’s not that he was a sinner or unbeliever, but he seemed to lack the holy ambition and drive that were characteristic of his older siblings. Basil often reprimanded him as a bumbler. But at Basil’s death Gregory came into his own and suddenly emerged a major player on the world scene—a master of spiritual and systematic theology, a leader at councils, a healer of divisions in the Church.
Links
Gregory Nazianzen, Letter 1, on his disappointment with Gregory of Nyssa
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2472
Basil the Great, Letter 58, a reproach to Gregory his brother
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2623
Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, Book 1 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2271
Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2277
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina's books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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All Gregory wanted was a quiet place where he could relax with his books and a few close friends. From young adulthood he believed God was calling him to the contemplative life, and to old age he never lost that sense. But history kept dragging him into its current. First, his father (a bishop) coerced him into ordination to the priesthood. Then his closest friend, Basil the Great, pressured him to be ordained a bishop. Both times he put up little resistance, but later resented the actions as violence. Both times he eventually fled the demands of his office. Later he was persuaded to lead the Nicene faction in the capital city of the empire. Eventually he became bishop there and led the second ecumenical council in 380. Before the council was over he resigned and resumed his monastic retreat back home. Along the way he wrote the most compelling and complete Trinitarian theology of his time—and reams of great poetry.
Links
Gregory Nazianzen, Epistle 150 (on dogmatic questions) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2459
Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 2 (on his flight from priesthood) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2433
Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 27: The First Theological Oration (on the duties of the theologian) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2440
John Henry Newman, “Basil and Gregory” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/historical/volume2/fathers/chapter3.html
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina's books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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History calls him "Basil the Great," and his greatnesses were many. He was a brilliant theologian; and anyone today who writes about tradition or the Holy Spirit must engage his works, which are foundational in the field. He also produced some of the earliest sustained reflections on the social order implicit in the Gospel. But he didn't just think about these things. He did something about them. As bishop he was a model administrator, marshaling the resources of Christians in order to build a "new city" dedicated to worship and service of those in need; there he constructed one of the first hospitals, a poorhouse, a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, a hospice, and a trade school. He was an outstanding preacher, an organizer, an operator, and a saint recognized for greatness even in his own lifetime.
Links
Gregory Nazianzen, Funeral Oration on the Great St. Basil https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2453
Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2544
Basil the Great, Homily I: in the Beginning God Made the Heaven and the Earth https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2545
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina's books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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As a theological poet, he is peerless but for Dante. Yet Ephrem’s fame rests not only on his words, but also on his heroic deeds. He lived almost his entire life in a war zone. He helped invent the hospital and the women’s choir. He served tirelessly in times of famine and natural disaster—and he died caring for the sick during a pandemic. More than 500 of his hymns have survived into our time.
Links
Free audiobook readings of St. Ephrem’s hymns https://www.catholicculture.org/search/search.cfm?searchgoals=6&andsearch=Ephrem%20audiobooks
Ephraim the Syrian, The Nisibene Hymns https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2224
Ephraim the Syrian, Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2225
Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History (Ephraim’s story is at Book III, Chapter XVI) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2885
Robert Murray, S.J., Symbols of Church and Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition https://www.amazon.com/Symbols-Church-Kingdom-Syriac-Tradition/dp/0567030822/
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina's books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Aphrahat is known in the tradition as "the Persian Sage." He is the first Father in our series to live, geographically and culturally, outside the Roman Empire. Born in the late third century in the Persian Empire, he flourished amid persecution. Aphrahat is the earliest prominent witness to Syriac Christianity. He wrote in a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. He maintained close contact with Judaism and demonstrated a profound knowledge of Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish customs. He wrote in prose that reads like poetry. His is a most unusual voice. The modern rabbi Jacob Neusner called Aphrahat a model of Jewish-Christian dialogue — “an enduring voice of civility and rationality amid the cacophony of mutual disesteem.”
Links
Aphrahat the Persian Sage, Select Demonstrations https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2231
Aphrahat the Persian Sage, Demonstration 2 http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/aphrahat_dem2.htm
Aphrahat the Persian Sage, Demonstration 7 http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/aphrahat_dem7.htm
Jacob Neusner, Aphrahat and Judaism: The Christian-Jewish Argument in Fourth-Century Iran https://www.amazon.com/Aphrahat-Judaism-Christian-Jewish-Fourth-Century-Supplements/dp/9004021507/
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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He is often called the Athanasius of the West, and the two men had much in common. They defended the Council of Nicaea and opposed the emperor ... and suffered exile for their trouble. But Hilary's approach to controversy differed from that of Athanasius. He listened to his opponents, read their works, and found common ground when he could. When he couldn't, he was able to address their concerns clearly and directly. He was even willing to work with heretics as they opposed more radical heresies. He composed the first systematic treatise on the Trinity and was perhaps the first to introduce hymns into Western worship. His own hymns are still sung today.
Links
Hilary of Poitiers, On the Councils, or the Faith of the Easterns
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2850
Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity (first 3 books) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2851
Hilary of Poitiers, hymns https://hymnary.org/person/Poitiers_Ho
A hymn by Hilary in English translation https://youtu.be/bf51fVfV0VE
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Every Christian historian or history buff is dependent upon the work of Eusebius of Caesarea. He didn’t invent Church history, but his writings made it a serious discipline. He was the first to attempt a comprehensive, universal history of Christianity. He wanted his account to be the official story. Yet in his own lifetime he showed the perils and ironies of living within history. He did this by aiding and abetting true villains and assisting in the persecution of saints and heroes.
Links
Eusebius of Caesarea, Oration in Praise of Constantine, on his 30th Anniversary https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2883
Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2880
Eusebius of Caesarea, Chronicon https://www.amazon.com/Athanasius-Introduction-Thomas-Weinandy-Cap-dp-0813231140/dp/0813231140/
Eusebius of Caesarea, The Proof of the Gospel http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_de_03_book1.htm
Eusebius of Caesarea, Preparation for the Gospel http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_pe_01_book1.htm
Eusebius of Caesarea, Theophany http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_theophania_02book1.htm
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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The world awoke to find itself heretic, but one man would not accept the situation. Athanasius stood fast against emperors, bishops, and even synods of bishops. Ordained as a young man, he lived to reign as bishop for 45 years. But 17 of those years he spent in exile. He was exiled five times at the orders of four different emperors. Athanasius became symbolic—the face of the Council of Nicaea, with its creed and its special word: “consubstantial.” As the fortunes of Nicaea waxed and waned, Athanasius rose and fell. He was accused of murder and embezzlement, charged with desecration and magic. He spent much of his life on the run. He had many close calls and brushes with death. His life was a breathless adventure for orthodoxy’s sake. And he prevailed.
Links
St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Encyclical Epistle to the Bishops Throughout the World
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2005
St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourses against the Arians
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3085
Excellent study of Athanasius by Fr. Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap. https://www.amazon.com/Athanasius-Introduction-Thomas-Weinandy-Cap-dp-0813231140/dp/0813231140/
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org.
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Alexander can’t say he wasn’t warned. His predecessor as bishop of Alexandria, Peter, had told him not to trust Arius. But Alexander ignored the advice. Then Arius went into open rebellion, and then his heresy spread throughout the world. And then Alexander had to act decisively, arguing strongly against the Arian heresy and prevailing at the Council of Nicaea in 325.
Links
St. Alexander of Alexandria, Letter to the Bishop of Constantinople https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1823
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Through one man’s witness, monasticism took the world by storm. Anthony of Egypt became history’s least probable celebrity. He gave up his money and possessions. He couldn’t read or write. He fled to the desert to be alone with God. Yet he drew disciples wherever he went. His desert became a city populated by monks and hermits. Philosophers and emperors sought his sage advice. In the course of his life he exercised a profound influence on the history of religion.
Links
St. Athanasius, Life of St. Anthony (audio) https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/audiobook_authors_titles.cfm
Episode on the Temptation of St. Anthony in art history https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/90-temptation-st-anthony-elizabeth-lev/
St. Athanasius, Life of St. Anthony (text) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3080
Palladius, The Lausiac History - a fifth-century history of monasticism http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/palladius_lausiac_02_text.htm
Peter H. Gorg, The Desert Fathers, a recent introduction to the lives of the solitaries https://www.ignatius.com/The-Desert-Fathers-P545.aspx
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
He was the greatest rhetorician in the Latin-speaking world. Born in North Africa, Lactantius was summoned to serve at the imperial court. He converted to Christianity and, with the persecution of Diocletian, lost his job and lived in poverty. He continued writing to strengthen the faithful. With the rise of Constantine and the legalization of Christianity, he was restored to glory. In his writings we have a unique eyewitness account of one of history’s most important transitional moments.
Links
Lactantius, Of the Manner in which the Persecutors Died https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1885
Lactantius, On the Workmanship of God https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1884
Lactantius, The Epitome of the Divine Institutes https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1882
Lactantius, The Phoenix https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1856
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org.
It’s hard to be an intelligent Christian without somehow handling Origen’s ideas. He set the ground rules for scientific study of the Bible. He wrote foundational works in spirituality, apologetics, and fundamental theology. In this episode, we look at those big accomplishments, but also examine the ideas that got him into trouble. Do souls exist before they get bodies? Does Satan get saved in the end? Does allegory trump history when we read the Bible? And did Origen really say all these things anyway? Find out why the Man of Steel is just as controversial today as he was almost two millennia ago.
Links
St. Methodius of Olympus, Against Origen (fragment) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1833
St. Jerome, Letter 84 to Pammachius https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2379
Thomas Mirus on Origen’s theology https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/church-fathers-origens-theology/
Pope Benedict XVI on Origen’s thought https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7548
Catholic Culture Audiobooks reading of Origen homily on Genesis: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/origen-alexandria-homily-i-on-genesis/
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Origen of Alexandria was one of the most important figures in Christian antiquity—most brilliant and most productive—yet also one of the most complicated. He was widely influential and widely despised. He was praised for his accomplishments and blamed for disasters. He wrote thousands of books and invented several academic disciplines, including scientific biblical studies, fundamental theology, and spiritual theology. Toward the end of life he endured tortures rather than deny the faith; and he died a hero’s death. This is the first of two episodes on his life and work.
Links
Gregory of Pontus, The Oration and Panegyric Addressed to Origen https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1849
Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History: Book VI https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1999
A Letter from Origen to Africanus https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1693
Origen, On Prayer http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/origen_on_prayer_02_text.htm
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Catholic Culture Audiobooks reading of Origen homily on Genesis: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/origen-alexandria-homily-i-on-genesis/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Origen of Alexandria was one of the most important figures in Christian antiquity—most brilliant and most productive—yet also one of the most complicated. He was widely influential and widely despised. He was praised for his accomplishments and blamed for disasters. He wrote thousands of books and invented several academic disciplines, including scientific biblical studies, fundamental theology, and spiritual theology. Toward the end of life he endured tortures rather than deny the faith; and he died a hero’s death. This is the first of two episodes on his life and work.
Links
Gregory of Pontus, The Oration and Panegyric Addressed to Origen https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1849
Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History: Book VI https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1999
A Letter from Origen to Africanus https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1693
Origen, On Prayer http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/origen_on_prayer_02_text.htm
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org.
He was a believer for little more than a decade, but in that time he managed to set one of the pre-eminent examples of Christian leadership. Before his conversion, Cyprian had lived the Carthaginian dream. He was wealthy and successful, but miserable and maybe addicted to drink and other pleasures. With his baptism came a transformation. Within a year he was ordained a priest. In two years he was bishop over all of North Africa. His years in office were a time of unprecedented crisis. His Church faced persecution, pandemic, catastrophic climate change, and famine. He managed all with grace and won his prominent place in history before dying as a martyr.
Links
The Life and Passion of Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1732
Cyprian of Carthage, Treatise: On the Lapsed https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1708
Cyprian of Carthage, Treatise: On the Mortality (Or Plague) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1712
Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 62: On the Sacrament of the Cup of the Lord https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1779
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org.
He started as a papal critic, became history's first antipope, and today is honored — with the pope he rejected — as a saint whose feast day is universal. Go figure. Hippolytus of Rome is one of the great curiosities of early Christian history. In ancient times he was known for his encyclopedic books of theology, which became standard reference works in the centuries to follow. The Church revived his Mass prayers in the last century, and they're still in use today.
Links
The Refutation of All Heresies https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1706
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus: Part I.—exegetical https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1728
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus: Part II.—dogmatical and Historical https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1730
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Alexandria, in Egypt, was the intellectual capital of the Greco-Roman world, and as the second century turned to the third it emerged as an influential center of Christian thought. Its first impression was spectacular — and it all came from a teacher named Clement. He was a seeker after truth, and had traveled the Mediterranean to study under the greatest Christian teachers. He settled in Alexandria, the site of a newly founded school, and eventually he came to lead the school. Several of Clement's works have survived, including his great trilogy on the spiritual and moral life. Any Christian who has pursued the life of prayer in the great Christian tradition has encountered ideas developed by Clement.
Links
Who Is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved? https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1650
Exhortation to the Heathen https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1658
The Instructor [Paedagogus.] https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1659
The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Books I-II https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1660
The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Books III-V https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1661
The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Books VI-VIII https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1648
Mike Aquilina on the school of Alexandria https://fathersofthechurch.com/2006/10/24/out-of-egypt/
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Perpetua of Carthage is almost unique in the literature of her time. She is a woman and a writer. Over the course of centuries, traditional Greco-Roman culture produced very few female writers. Nor did ancient literature bother much with the particular concerns of women. So Perpetua stands out as a witness to women’s experience in the third century—and the changed status of women in the Church. A Christian martyr, she kept a diary while in jail. The diary records ordinary details, such as visits from family members and the conditions of the prison. But it also tells of extraordinary visions. Perpetua speaks of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and weaning. In prison she emerges as a charismatic leader of her fellow Christians. Her diary is an extraordinary record, and it is a beautiful meditation on Christian life.
Links
Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity (Perpetua's Diary) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1678
The Story of Saint Perpetua (animated feature) https://brotherfrancisstore.com/collections/catholic-heroes-of-the-faith/products/catholic-heroes-of-the-faith-the-story-of-saint-perpetua
The Passion of Saint Perpetua (documentary) https://brotherfrancisstore.com/collections/catholic-heroes-of-the-faith/products/catholic-heroes-of-the-faith-the-passion-of-saint-perpetua
Perpetua’s Song https://brotherfrancisstore.com/products/perpetuas-song-audio-download
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Thank Tertullian of Carthage for his role in forming a distinctively western Christianity. He gave us words in our own language to express the inexpressible: words like Trinity and Sacrament. He also introduced the world to the idea of freedom of conscience. Our civilization rests on his ideas.
Links
Tertullian, Apology https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1662
Tertullian, To Scapula https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1682
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Sarcastic, bombastic, and brilliant, Tertullian of Carthage may be the most entertaining of the Church Fathers. He also did more than anyone else to launch theology in the Latin language. His life and his work were provocations to his opponents—who included many pagans and more than a few Christians. Learn about him (and the fascinating world of early North African Christianity) in this episode.
Links
Tertullian, Apology https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1662
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Marcus Minucius Felix is one of the greatest writers you never heard of. His “Octavius,” written in the late second century, is a work of fictionalized memoir set in the resort town of Ostia. Three friends go to the beach, and in a day of walks and conversation one of them leads another to conversion. It is the most deeply human study we have of the early Christians, describing the feel of the ocean breezes and the sand between their toes — and the best arguments for believing.
Links
The Octavius by Minucius Felix https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1688
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
He was a prophet living altogether in the Spirit. He was a second-century apologist, able to elucidate the doctrine of Christ for the understanding of strangers. He was a bishop, so he spoke with hierarchical authority. For us, though, Melito of Sardis is most valuable for the Paschal liturgy he left us. It is an important witness to Jewish-Christian relations at a crucial time in their development. His Peri Pascha serves well for the Lenten-Easter seasons and for a lifetime.
Links
Melito’s “Peri Pascha” in English https://www.amazon.com/Pascha-Fragments-Material-Quartodecimans-Patristics/dp/0881415545/
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
In the late second century the Church suffered an infestation of heresies — many of them, and they kept changing their claims. Into the fray God sent the great pioneer of anti-heretical literature, Irenaeus of Lyons. The title of his best known work says it all: Against Heresies. Irenaeus’s tools range from logic to parody. He put the smack down on some strains of heresy, and they stayed down for centuries.
Links
Free text of Book 3 of Irenaeus's "Against Heresies" https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1612
Pope Benedict XVI on Irenaeus https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1610
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
“Whatever things are rightly said are ours.” St. Justin looked at creation and saw Christ. He looked into the mind of Plato and found a Christian, born centuries before his time. Speaking with Romans, speaking with Greeks, speaking with Jews, he sought the good in his adversaries’ best ideas and showed that the good belonged properly to Christ and Christians. Though he lived in the second century, his description of the Mass was used in the Church’s 20th-century Catechism. He showed us how to be fearless in the face of ideas, and fearless even in the face of death.
Links
Free audiobook of Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-justin-martyr-dialogue-with-trypho/
Free text of Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1612
Free text of Justin Martyr’s First Apology https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1610
Free text of Justin Martyr’s Second Apology https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1611
A contemporary account of Justin’s martyrdom https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1618
An excellent popular study of Justin Martyr https://www.amazon.com/Case-Christianity-Arguments-Religious-Judicial/dp/158979575X/
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Forget the Dale Carnegie course. Here's how to win skeptical friends and influence pagans. Read the second-century Letter to Diognetus. The author's name is lost to history, but his warm, winsome overture still stands as a model of apologetics — the art of explaining and defending the faith. The Letter is often counted as the last of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers — or the first of the writings of the second-century Apologists. No matter how you shelve it, it's good reading, praised by saints and popes for centuries.
Links
Free online text of The Epistle to Diognetus https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1620
Free audiobook of The Epistle to Diognetus https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/letter-to-diognetus/
An excellent study of apologetics https://www.amazon.com/History-Apologetics-Robert-Cardinal-Dulles/dp/0898709334/
More works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
The Shepherd of Hermas is the strangest text from the Church’s earliest period. It’s at once a conversion story and a first-person account of heavenly visions. It’s a poem in prose and a guidebook for morals. It exercised a powerful influence in the early centuries of Christianity, especially on the practice of the sacrament of penance.
Links
Free online text of The Shepherd of Hermas https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1647
More Works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s Website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
The work of the early Church was largely done by Christians whose names we’ll never know. In fact, many of the most important documents from the first and second centuries have unknown or uncertain authorship. In this episode we examine some of those fascinating documents — the Didache, the Letter of Barnabas, and Second Clement — and we pay homage to our great (though nameless) ancestors in the faith.
Links Kenneth Howell’s new translation of the Didache and Second Clement https://www.amazon.com/Clement-Didache-Early-Christian-Fathers/dp/0983082979/
Audiobook of the Didache https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/didache-teaching-twelve-apostles/
Alternate Translation of the Didache at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1631
Translation of the Letter of Barnabas at CatholicCulture.org https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1646
Audiobook of Second Clement https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/so-called-second-letter-st-clement/
Translation of Second Clement at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1990
More Works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s Website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
St. Polycarp of Smyrna was a man with many connections. He knew the Apostle John, and St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Irenaeus of Lyon, and Pope Anicetus, and the arch-heretic Marcion. He also sought the company of many elders who had heard Jesus and witnessed the Lord’s miracles. Polycarp led a long and fascinating life, and he died a martyr’s death. In this episode we tell his story through his many relationships — his social network in the infant church, which like an infant child was rapidly growing in 150 A.D.
Links
Kenneth Howell’s new translation of ancient works by and about St. Polycarp https://www.amazon.com/Ignatius-Antioch-Polycarp-Christian-Fathers/dp/0980006651/
St. Polycarp’s Letter to the Philippians https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1626
The Church of Smyrna’s account of Polycarp’s martyrdom https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1627
Audio of the ancient works related to St. Polycarp https://www.catholicculture.org/search/search.cfm?searchgoals=6&andsearch=Polycarp%20audiobooks
More Works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s Website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
St. Ignatius of Antioch is the first of the Fathers to leave us abundant writings. His seven letters are passionate — warm, yet authoritative — spontaneous, but doctrinally rich. Written in 107 A.D. as the aged bishop traveled from Antioch to a martyr’s death in Rome, the letters give witness to many of the early Church’s beliefs and practices: Jesus’ true humanity and true divinity; his real presence in the Eucharist; and the universal hierarchy of bishop, priest, and deacon. The host of this podcast, Mike Aquilina, confesses Ignatius to be his favorite among the Fathers.
Links
Buy Kenneth Howell’s new edition and translation of the letters of Ignatius of Antioch https://www.amazon.com/Ignatius-Antioch-Polycarp-Christian-Fathers/dp/0980006651/
Enjoy a dramatic, novelistic retelling of the story of Ignatius https://www.amazon.com/Four-Witnesses-Early-Church-Words/dp/0898708478/
Learn from a recent study of the life and work of Ignatius, especially in regard to Jewish-Christian relations https://www.amazon.com/Ignatius-Antioch-Parting-Ways-Jewish-Christian/dp/0801047579/
Browse the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch online (free text) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/#
Hear the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch online (free audio) https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/audiobooks
More Works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s Website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
Clement of Rome led a church in turmoil. Its people were deeply divided. The secular culture was hostile to the faith. Across the ocean from the Eternal City the laity were rising up in rebellion against the clergy. And it was only 67 A.D. St. Peter was hardly cold in his grave on Vatican Hill. How should his successor lead in such a crisis? Clement healed the Church in the way of the Apostles: by writing a winsome, reasonable, gentle letter — which is the subject of Episode 3 of “The Way of the Fathers” with Mike Aquilina.
Clement’s Epistle to the Corinthians is, says Johannes Quasten, “the earliest piece of literature outside the New Testament for which the name, position, and date of the author are historically attested.” It provides us a snapshot of Church life as the first Christian generation turned over to the second. And it reveals the origins of so many doctrines: apostolic succession, Roman primacy, the papal office, and the unity of the Old Testament and the New.
Christians today don’t fully understand the achievement of the Apostles unless they understand the work of their immediate disciples. Clement knew both Peter and Paul and carried their mission forward according to their model and instructions. His words are useful for our own time of crisis.
Links
Buy Kenneth Howell’s new edition and translation of Clement of Rome’s Epistle. https://www.amazon.com/Clement-Didache-Early-Christian-Fathers/dp/0983082979/
Read Clement in the context of the other Apostolic Fathers. https://www.amazon.com/Early-Christian-Writings-Apostolic-Fathers/dp/0140444750/
Compare Clement’s letter in Greek and English. https://www.amazon.com/1-Clement-Readers-Theodore-Bergren/dp/0813232368/
Read a recent study of Clement’s Letter, by a respected scholar and official of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. https://www.amazon.com/Clement-Early-Church-Rome-Corinthians-ebook/dp/B004OEIWGC/
Clement’s First Epistle to the Corinthians online https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1608
More Works by the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s Website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
In this episode we examine the history of the study of the Fathers since the Reformation. The field has enjoyed explosive growth since then. We live in a time when so many works by the Fathers (and about the Fathers) are freely available online.
What drives people to read the Fathers?
Well, they’re apologetically useful. The Fathers returned to vogue after the 16th century because both Catholics and Protestants believed the documents of the early Church would be useful in apologetics.
And they are! They have inspired many conversions. But they’re more than that. They’re delightful to read. They fill us with hard-won wisdom. They tell riveting, dramatic stories. They show us how to keep a good sense of humor in the midst of great challenges.
Best of all, they draw us closer to Jesus Christ.
One of the exemplary students of the Fathers was St. John Henry Newman, and in this episode we examine the lessons he drew from their work.
Links
Buy Johannes Quasten’s four-volume set, Patrology https://www.amazon.com/Patrology-4-Set-Johannes-Quasten/dp/0870611410/
Read St. John Henry Newman’s An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine http://www.newmanreader.org/works/development/index.html
Works of the Fathers online https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
More Works by the Fathers http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/
Mike Aquilina’s Website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
With this episode author Mike Aquilina begins his twice-monthly series on the lives, times, and works of the early Church Fathers. The Way of the Fathers begins with answers to basic questions. What is fatherhood? And who are the Fathers?
The answers come from sources ancient (Vincent of Lerins) and modern (Ratzinger) — theologians who draw from the still more ancient words and patterns of biblical religion.
Mapping the Way of the Fathers, Aquilina touches upon the achievements of the early Christians, especially their establishment of the canons of Scripture, liturgy, and Church order.
The Fathers made us who we are. This podcast begins our pilgrimage to give them the honor that’s their due.
Links
Buy Mike Aquilina’s book The Fathers of the Church https://www.amazon.com/Fathers-Church-Mike-Aquilina/dp/1612785611
Buy Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Catholic-Theology-Building-Fundamental/dp/0898702151
Follow Mike Aquilina on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMikeAquilina
Works of the Fathers online https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
More Works by the Fathers http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/
Contemporary Application of an Idea from the Fathers: The Catena https://www.beholdthetruth.com
Mike Aquilina’s Website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Aquilina
USCCB: “Praying with the Fathers of the Church: A Reflection per Day for Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter,” by Mike Aquilina http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/catechetical-sunday/prayer/family-resources-mike-aquilina.cfm
Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of http://www.ccwatershed.org.
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