The Church Fathers are the early bishops, theologians, and teachers who wrote and defended the Christian faith from the time of the Apostles through roughly the eighth century. They’re not just historical figures we study. They’re our witnesses to what the Church believed from the beginning.
When you hear Orthodox Christians talk about “the Fathers,” we mean something specific. These aren’t just any ancient Christian writers. The Church recognizes them because they taught what the Apostles taught, lived holy lives, and were accepted by the Church as reliable guides to the faith. St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was martyred around 107 AD, is one of the earliest. St. John of Damascus, who died in 749, is often considered the last of the great Fathers. That’s a long stretch of time, but it covers the era when the Church was hammering out the basic shape of Christian doctrine.
If you come from a Baptist or non-denominational background, this might seem strange at first. You might be thinking, “Why do we need these guys? Don’t we just need the Bible?” Here’s the thing: the Church Fathers aren’t a replacement for Scripture. They’re the ones who show us how the Church has always understood Scripture. When St. John Chrysostom preached through the Gospel of Matthew verse by verse in fourth-century Antioch, he wasn’t making stuff up. He was passing on what he’d received. The Fathers are the living connection between us and the Apostles.
Why They Matter
The Fathers defined what we believe about Christ. When heresies arose claiming Jesus wasn’t fully God or wasn’t fully human, the Fathers stood up at councils like Nicaea and said, “No, here’s what we’ve always believed.” St. Athanasius spent most of his life fighting Arianism, the heresy that denied Christ’s full divinity. He was exiled five times for it. That’s not just ancient church politics. That’s someone who understood that if Jesus isn’t truly God, we aren’t saved.
The Fathers also show us how to read the Bible. If you pick up the Orthodox Study Bible, you’ll see patristic commentary throughout. When Chrysostom explains a passage from Romans, he’s not just giving his opinion. He’s teaching what the Church in his time believed, which connects back to what the Apostles taught. This is what we mean by Holy Tradition. It’s not adding to Scripture. It’s the Church’s living memory of what Scripture means.
Some Fathers You Should Know
St. Ignatius of Antioch is huge for us at St. Michael. He was the third bishop of Antioch, the city where believers were first called Christians. On his way to martyrdom in Rome, he wrote seven letters to various churches. In those letters, he talks about the Eucharist as truly Christ’s body and blood, not a symbol. He talks about the importance of bishops. He talks about unity in the Church. This is barely seventy years after Christ’s resurrection, and he’s describing a Church that looks Orthodox.
St. John Chrysostom is another Antiochian giant. “Chrysostom” means “golden-mouth” because he was such a powerful preacher. He served as Archbishop of Constantinople but he came from Antioch, and his homilies on Scripture are still read in Orthodox churches today. The Divine Liturgy most of us celebrate on Sundays bears his name. When you hear the priest pray the anaphora, you’re hearing prayers Chrysostom helped shape sixteen centuries ago.
The Three Holy Hierarchs are Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom. We celebrate them together on January 30th. Basil wrote the monastic rule that most Orthodox monasteries still follow. Gregory wrote theological orations on the Trinity that are so good they’re still studied in seminaries. Together with Chrysostom, these three shaped how the Church thinks, prays, and lives.
St. Ephrem the Syrian wrote hymns and poetry. St. Cyril of Alexandria defended the title Theotokos for Mary at the Council of Ephesus. St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote about the spiritual life. Each Father had his own gifts, but they all pointed to the same Christ.
How We Engage With Them Today
You don’t need to read the Fathers to be Orthodox, but you can’t avoid them either. They’re woven into our services. The prayers we pray, the hymns we sing, the way we interpret Scripture in sermons, it all comes through the Fathers. If Fr. Nicholas preaches on a Gospel passage and quotes Chrysostom, he’s not showing off. He’s demonstrating that what he’s teaching isn’t new or his own invention.
Some people dive deep into patristic writings. Ancient Faith Publishing has made a lot of this accessible. You can read Chrysostom’s homilies or Athanasius on the Incarnation in modern English. But even if you never crack open a volume of the Fathers, you’re still encountering them every time you come to Liturgy. They’re the ones who gave us the words we use to worship.
The Church Fathers aren’t a wall between us and Jesus. They’re the family photo album. They show us what the family has always looked like, what we’ve always believed, how we’ve always prayed. When someone asks, “Where do Orthodox Christians get these ideas about the Eucharist or the saints or how to interpret the Bible?” the answer is: from the same place the Church has always gotten them. From the Fathers, who got them from the Apostles, who got them from Christ.
