Facts : 1 Before the Sixteenth Century In the Western church four eminent Fathers of the Church attained this honour in the early Middle Ages: Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, and Saint Jerome
Facts : 2 The four Doctors became a commonplace among the Scholastics, and a decree of Boniface VIII (1298) ordering their feasts to be kept as doubles in the whole Church is contained in his sixth book of Decretals (cap
Facts : 3 In the Eastern Church three Doctors were pre-eminent: Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Basil the Great, and Saint Gregory Nazianzen
Facts : 4 The feasts of these three saints were made obligatory throughout the Eastern Empire by Leo VI the Wise
Facts : 5 A common feast was later instituted in their honour on 30 January, called the feast of the three Hierarchs
Facts : 6 In the Menaea for that day it is related that the three Doctors appeared in a dream to John Mauropous, Bishop of Euchaitae, and commanded him to institute a festival in their honour, in order to put a stop to the rivalries of their votaries and panegyrists
Facts : 7 But sermons for the feast are attributed in manuscripts to Cosmas Vestitor, who flourished in the tenth century
Facts : 8 Durandus (i, 3) remarks that Doctors should be represented with books in their hands
Facts : 9 In the West analogy led to the veneration of four Eastern Doctors, Saint Athanasius being added to the three hierarchs
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