This is an official title given to Catholic saints notable for the holiness of their lives, the distinction and orthodoxy of their teaching, and their theological and spiritual learning.

This teaching and learning must be of universal relevance. It is the Church, through the Pope, which declares that a saint is a Doctor, following careful examination of a theological and historical file by the Congregations of the Saints and of the Faith. Until 1970, there were 32 Doctors of the Church, all of them men. That year, Paul VI added two women: Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) and Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380).

It is worth noting that Saint Catherine could neither read nor write. She dictated her "Dialogues" and her highly important letters. This shows that a saint does not have to be highly educated or teach in any formal sense to be a Doctor of the Church. Theology (= words about God) is not a matter of speech, but of experience, and this experience is not expressed only in learned treatises. The great women mystics of the Church all have a special place in this heartfelt knowledge of the Divine Mystery, the Mystery of Love.

It is significant that women now figure prominently in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux is mentioned six times. She had written in all simplicity and truth: `Ah! If scholars who had spent their lives studying had come to question me, they would certainly have been amazed to see a fourteen year-old child understand the secrets of perfection, secrets which all their learning cannot reveal to them, for only the poor in spirit can possess them!..."

And again, when boundless aspirations were tormenting her, she said: Ah! In spite of my littleness, I would like to enlighten souls as did the Prophets and the Doctors. I have the vocation of the Apostle..