Commentary / Podcasts

Top 10 from Way of the Fathers within the Last Year

5.4 St. Gregory of Narek: Patron Saint of Armenia by Way of the Fathers (From Feb 12, 2025)

In the first episode on St. Gregory of Narek (c. 945-1003), Dr. Papandrea introduces one of the newest additions to the list of Doctors of the Church. Gregory was an Armenian monk, scholar, poet, and saint, who was praised...

5.5 St. Gregory of Narek: Doctor of Mercy by Way of the Fathers (From Feb 26, 2025)

St. Gregory of Narek (c. 945-1003), was an Armenian saint—a monk, scholar, poet, and hymn writer. Praised as a saint by Pope St. John Paul II, who called by him the “great Marian doctor of the Armenian...

5.1 The Doctors of the Church—Introduction by Way of the Fathers (From Jan 1, 2025)

With this episode, we begin our new series on the Doctors of the Church. What is a Doctor of the Church? Are all Doctors also saints? What makes a person a Doctor of the Church? All these questions, and more, will be...

5.3 St. Bede: The Father of English History by Way of the Fathers (From Jan 29, 2025)

In this second episode on St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735 AD), Dr. Papandrea talks about the literary legacy of this Doctor of the Church. Bede is not only considered the “father of English history,”...

St. Boethius: Church Father and Medieval Scholar by Way of the Fathers (From Dec 11, 2024)

St. Severinus Boethius was a man with one foot in the ancient world and one foot in the middle ages. He is another one of our lesser-known fathers who were anything but forgotten among the medieval scholastics. In this...

Who Was Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite? by Way of the Fathers (From Nov 27, 2024)

Whenever you see “Pseudo-“ in front of a name like this, it means we don’t really know who the person was. This Church father wrote under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, a convert of St. Paul...

Rufinus of Aquileia and the Apostles’ Creed by Way of the Fathers (From Oct 23, 2024)

Rufinus is mostly known as the translator of Origen, and the opponent of St. Jerome in the controversy over Origen. But he also wrote an important commentary on the Apostles’ Creed, which is on Dr. Papandrea’s...

5.2 St. Bede the Venerable: Monk and Scholar by Way of the Fathers (From Jan 15, 2025)

In this episode, the first in our series on the Doctors of the Church, Dr. Papandrea introduces you to St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735 AD). He lived in a Benedictine monastery from the age of seven, and he wrote...

Pope St. Stephen and the Sacraments by Way of the Fathers (From Oct 9, 2024)

After the controversies in the mid-third century, in the aftermath of the persecution of the emperor Decius and the schism of Novatian, Pope St. Stephen was instrumental in clarifying the Church’s theology of the...

Egeria the Pilgrim and the Stations of the Cross by Way of the Fathers (From Nov 13, 2024)

Egeria (or Etheria) was a woman who embarked on a three-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in the late fourth century. From her “pilgrimage diary” (actually fragments from her letters to her “sisters”...