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Who and What are the Church Fathers?
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Who and What are the Church Fathers?

Lecture 1 of the 2024 Advent Study Series
First Ecumenical Council (Damaskinos) Icon - F300

In the audio above is the audio from the first lecture of the Advent Study Series I am doing at my parish. The series is called “Foundations of the Faith: Introducing the Church Fathers.”

In the lecture I reference the icon above, which is of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which happened in AD 325.

In the part of the talk not included in the audio above, I went through many of the major Church Fathers. The text of the slides I showed during that part of the lecture are reproduced below.

The Apostolic Fathers – 1st and 2nd centuries
Saint Clement of Rome (d. 100)
Saint Ignatius of Antioch (d. 110)
Saint Polycarp (d. 155)

Uncertain authors:
The Didache
The Epistle of Barnabas
The Epistle to Diognetus
The Shepherd of Hermas

The Desert Fathers – 3rd and 4th centuries
Saint Anthony the Great (d. 356)
Saint Athansius the Great (d. 373, also a Greek Father)
Saint John Cassian (d. 435)
Saint Macarius of Egypt (d. 391)
Saint John Chrysostom (d. 407, also a Greek Father)
Many others, collected in books of “Sayings” and anthologies such as the Philokalia

The Greek Fathers – 2nd through 8th centuries
Saint Justin Martyr (d. 165)
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202)
Saint Clement of Alexandria (d. 202)
Origen of Alexandria (d. 254)
Saint Basil the Great (d. 379)
Saint Gregory Nazianzus (d. 389)
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (d. 395)
Saint Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444)
Saint Maximos the Confessor (d. 662)
Saint John of Damascus (d. 749)

The Latin Fathers – 3rd through 8th centuries
Saint Tertullian (d. 222)
Saint Ambrose of Milan (d. 397)
Saint Jerome (d. 420)
Saint Augustine of Hippo (d. 430)
Saint Leo the Great (d. 440)
Saint Gregory the Great (d. 604)
Saint Bede the Venerable (d. 735)

The Syriac Fathers – 4th through 8th centuries
Saint Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373)
Saint Isaac of Ninevah (d. 700)

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Fr Matthew C. Dallman's Substack
The Orthodox-Catholic Anglican
Homilies, catechetical resources, discussions, and interviews from your host, Father Matthew C. Dallman, Obl.S.B., founder of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality. Fr Dallman is an Anglican parish priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida; Rector of Saint Paul's, New Smyrna Beach. His public ministry focuses on mystagogical catechesis, domestic church, plainsong chant, and the intersections of Prayer Book life, orthodo-Catholic witness, patristic theology, and robust devotion to Our Lady. He is the leading authority on the theology of Martin Thornton and is a student of the English School of Catholic spirituality (true Anglican patrimony). He has led retreats in the Episcopal Dioceses of Springfield, Tennessee, and North Dakota.