Father of the Universal Church

Abstract

Fathers of the Church and Doctors of the Church are charismatically gifted inspiring teachers, leaders and powerful builders of Christian tradition. They protected the Church from heretical teachings, schismatic developments, deviant human life patterns and thus edified the Church through the centuries. In this respect the life and mission of St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara needs to be revisited in the context of the Thomas Christians of India. The mission of Christ was entrusted to the Church and that was fulfilled through her gifted teachers, leaders and powerful witnesses of Christian life from time to time. The mission of instructing, sanctifying and governing were based on the tripartite functioning of the priestly, prophetic and kingly (shepherding) faculties of the created humanity. These faculties and ministries were handled by the Church under the noble guidance of the Fathers, Doctors and Teachers of the Church in a faithful and discerning manner in the light of scriptures, tradition and the teachings of the Church. From those eminent teachers and preachers of the early Christian centuries emerged the ‘Fathers of the Church’, and later the ‘Doctors of the Church’, as builders of the Church.