Influential Church Fathers between 1st & 8th Century comprise the "Patristic Age". These early authors, "defended the Gospel against heresies and misunderstandings; they composed extensive commentaries on the Bible, explanatory, doctrinal, and practical, and published innumerable sermons, largely on the same subject; they exhibited the meaning and implications of the Creeds; they recorded past and current events in Church history; and they related the Christian faith to the best thought of their own age." (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church,1997)
4 characteristics that denote meriting title of church father:
1- Orthodox doctrine
2 - acceptance by the church as an important link in the transmission of the Faith
3 - holiness of life
4 - and living between the Apostolic era (100 AD) and either the death of John of Damascus in the East and Isidore of Seville in the West.
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