Celebrating the four women doctors of the church

(OSV News) -- As Catholics, we are incredibly blessed to have the communion of saints, and each and every one of us is encouraged by the church to find a patron (or many) from among their number. To make it easier for people to find just the right saint to suit their needs, the church has designated saints as patrons of countries, cultures, occupations, interests and even illnesses.

In addition to this, the church has created categories of saints, groups of saints with similar qualities. One of the lesser known categories, but one of great importance, is that of doctor of the church. Not a medical doctor, this title is meant to convey something like the gravitas of a doctoral degree. The doctors of the church are the saints that many of us need to understand the faith better, and more than that, to grow in our relationship with the Lord.

Nestled among these 37 great saints are four women doctors of the church, the only women in church history to rise to this distinction.

It's not possible to give a full account of their lives in the span of a single article. Each woman has been the subject of countless biographies and much research. But I hope that providing a brief sketch of their life and accomplishments will encourage you to read one of those biographies or, even better, their actual writings.

-- St. Hildegard of Bingen: St. Hildegard of Bingen was born to a noble family in the year 1098. Even as a child, she had mystical visions of the Lord, though it wasn't until she was older that she was able to understand the meaning of them all. As a young woman, she entered religious life, and it was here that her talents truly exploded. St. Hildegard was a woman who did everything and did it well.

At age 43, she sought the advice of her spiritual director about her visions, and their authenticity was declared by a committee of church theologians. This led her to write them and their meanings down into her great mystical work, "The Scivias." It also allowed her to seek and receive permission from the pope to travel and evangelize, making her one of the only women of her time to be allowed to preach publicly. An enduring theme in St. Hildegard's theology is the ability to find God through the use of our senses.

In addition, the prolific Hildegard wrote the first known morality play, lyrical poetry, a cookbook, medical treatises (she was also the equivalent of a medical doctor in her time), and even came up with her own language. She also composed beautiful music, which is played by orchestras around the world to this day.

St. Hildegard died in 1179. She was canonized in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI and declared a doctor of the church the same year.

-- St. Catherine of Siena: St. Catherine of Siena was born in 1347 to a well-respected family. She was the youngest of 25 children, though most of her siblings did not survive to adulthood. Catherine consecrated herself to Christ while young and refused to marry, even cutting off her hair to disrupt a proposal.

She obtained reluctant permission from her parents to renew her vow of virginity and enter the third-order Dominicans, which would allow her to remain living with her family.

For many years St. Catherine lived as a hermit in her family's home but eventually began venturing out, and her ministry extended across the oceans. She traveled extensively at the behest of both popes and civic leaders, playing an active role in the church and Italian politics, both very complicated during her lifetime.

St. Catherine was clearheaded about the sins and failures of the leaders of the church, but obedience to the Lord and the church were uppermost in importance to her. She always worked to draw more and more people to Christ her bridegroom, even as she worked to bring peace amongst warring parties. In fact, St. Catherine is credited with ending the Avignon Papacy and returning the pope to Rome.

She wrote voluminously, mostly in letter form, offering blunt but loving advice to her spiritual children as well as the bishops and cardinals who sought her out for her wisdom. Almost 400 of her letters survive today.

While in a state of ecstasy, St. Catherine dictated a series of conversations she had with the Lord, which were later published under the title "The Dialogue." Intimately personal, and yet full of instruction that is applicable to all, this piece seamlessly weaves theology and personal prayer together. St. Catherine's prayer life was deep and full of the mystical, and she received the stigmata from the Lord at the age of 28.

St. Catherine died a young woman, just 33 years old. She was canonized in 1461.

-- St. Teresa of Avila: The woman we know today as St. Teresa of Avila was born Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumada on March 28, 1515. Born into a family of Spanish nobility, Teresa learned about faith and honor at her mother's knee. The lives of the saints, read to all the children in their family, were influential in her childhood, even to the point that she and her brother Rodrigo ran away from home, vowing to become martyrs.

At age 20, Teresa entered the local Carmelite convent. This particular convent was known for being lax in its practices, and as a result, the extroverted and popular Teresa spent a great deal of time socializing in the parlor with visitors. Indeed, for years she struggled greatly, torn between the worldly and the divine.

It wasn't until she reached the age of 40 that she had a full conversion and conviction that God was asking more of her. It was this deep spiritual awakening within herself that began what would turn out to be the great restoration of the Carmelite order as a whole and the founding of the Discalced Carmelites. Teresa's attempts to restore the order to its original austerity were met with great resistance both within and without, but even so, she still managed to found and nurture 16 new convents.

In addition to this great work, Teresa wrote extensively, primarily to the sisters that she lived with and mentored, to help them to reach greater intimacy with God. Her most well-known piece is "The Interior Castle," which follows the path that a soul takes on its journey to Christ. Though it touches on great theological truths at length, it is also remarkably readable for the average person and contains a great deal of the author's personality, rendering it very relatable and engaging.

Teresa of Avila died at age 67 in 1582. She was canonized a mere 40 years after her death in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.

-- St. Thérèse of Lisieux: St. Thérèse of Lisieux was born the youngest of nine children (five who survived childhood) to Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin and was, by all accounts, a deeply beloved addition to the family. After her mother's death when she was 4, Thérèse was raised by her father and older sisters.

She knew that God was calling her to religious life at a very young age and was so determined to follow several of her older sisters and enter the Carmelite order that, during a papal audience while on a pilgrimage to Rome with her father, she asked the pope to grant her special permission to profess her vows early. Undeterred by his no, she entered Carmel at the young age of 15 and never looked back.

Thérèse struggled with scrupulosity and depression, but through it all she maintained a deep and childlike faith in the Father's love for her that would become the cornerstone of her great theological work. Under the order of her prioress, Thérèse wrote down her doctrine of faith, "Story of a Soul." It is this book, which preaches holiness through the ordinary combined with a fearless faith that is total in trust and surrender to God, that would later lead her to become the youngest of all of the doctors of the church.

Thérèse died at the tender age of 24 of tuberculosis. She was canonized in 1925.

In my humble opinion, there are undoubtedly other women who deserve to have this title bestowed upon them. And I am not the only one to think so.

In 2015, the Marian Helpers put together a well-reasoned and thoroughly researched petition to the Holy See arguing that St. Faustina ought to be admitted to the group. Through her visions and writings, the church has come to a deeper understanding of Christ's merciful love, and her insights into the Divine Mercy of Our Lord have changed the face of the church. Writing just before the outbreak of World War II, it is undeniable that St. Faustina's message was urgent in her time period, and no one who has attended Mass the Sunday after Easter, now known the world over as Divine Mercy Sunday, can argue with the worldwide and enduring nature of her message.

The Carmelites have also begun a petition on behalf of St. Edith Stein, a woman who actually did hold a doctoral degree. Her doctoral dissertation was on the subject of empathy, a topic that she would return to in later writings after her conversion to Catholicism. Within her 28 volumes of writings, there is ample theological insight of value to the entirety of the church.

And who could argue that the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque have not influenced the entirety of the church? Her name might be less familiar to many than other saints, but the devotion to the Sacred Heart, which we owe to her, is not.

These are only three examples. There are more women to be found within our church's history and, I am sure, more women doctors of the church to come in the future.