For centuries the leaders of Christian thought spoke of women as a necessary evil, and the greatest saints of the Church are those who despise women the most. — Annie Besant
Other priests came, other gospels they brought — Greek Proverbs
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. — Tertullian
I have neither permitted, nor shall I permit, the things which have been settled by the holy fathers to be violated by any innovation. — Pope Leo I
The bishops will govern the Church, the priests will do all the work and the deacons will have all the fun. — Richard Cushing
I go farther, and say, that it is plainly our duty to desire pastors and teachers to take the care of such congregations, and that God did raise up such in the church as we see it in the word. — John Nelson Darby
Spiritual leaders are not made by man, nor any combination of men. Neither conferences, nor synods, nor councils can make them, but only God. — Samuel Logan Brengle
The Church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it. — St. Jerome
And we find from Church history that the primitive Christians thus understood it; for that women did actually speak and preach amongst them we have indisputable proof. — Catherine Booth
Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons. — Thomas Cranmer
By heart we believe and by mouth confess the one Church, not of heretics but the Holy Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church outside which we believe that no one is saved. — Pope Innocent III
The only good thing that we owe to Plato and Aristotle is that they brought forward many arguments which we can use against the heretics. Yet they and other philosophers are now in hell. — Girolamo Savonarola
The Church is built on the rock of Peter, and he who eats the Lamb outside this holy dwelling is reprobate .. .He who eats the Lamb outside this Apostolic See has no part with God! — Pope Pius IX
To be a Christian is to be a theologian-a student of God and his will. The contemporary disdain for theological content and emphasis on self-image and emotions were not shared by the apostolic church. — R. C. Sproul
Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with church dogma must be burned without pity. — Pope Innocent III
Catholic Church Fathers Quotes
I was raised Catholic, but my father's people were Methodist, so we went to both churches. — Aaron Neville
If anyone in word and mind does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers all even to the last portion that which has been handed down and preached in the holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church of God...let him be anathema. — Pope Martin I
When I was a young boy, my father taught me that to be a good Catholic, I had to confess at church if I ever had impure thoughts about a girl. That very evening I had to rush to confess my sin. And the next night, and the next. After a week, I decided religion wasn't for me. — Fidel Castro
Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them.
Cuban agents are assigned to a Catholic Church where their instructions are to beat, jail and intimidate the Ladies In White that attend Mass and who afterwards peacefully take to the streets calling for the release of their husbands, sons and fathers who are political prisoners. — Marco Rubio
My first memories of religion were being taken to Episcopal church. My father was Catholic, but my mother, I believe, was Episcopal. So I sort of veered off into the watered-down version of Catholicism. — Marilyn Manson
My father was Catholic, my mother was Protestant, and because of that I got Christened in both churches, so I've got all these names... but my Dad always called me Mick. — Mickey Spillane
Watch you thoughts, for they become words. Watch you words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for the become you character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become. My father always said that. And I think I am fine.
At age 11, I went to a Jewish school. I speak Yiddish. I'm Church of England Protestant. My father was Catholic, and my mother was Protestant. My wife is a Muslim. — Michael Caine
It is time that the Protestant Church, the Church of the Son, should be one again with the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of the Father. It is time that man shall cease, first to live in the flesh, with joy, and then, unsatisfied, to renounce and to mortify the flesh. — D. H. Lawrence
The Catholic Church with its foreshortened American history and tangled puritanical roots was as inviolate to my mother and father as it was to the last-ditch aristocrats of Evelyn Waugh. — Maureen Howard
Why cast yourself over a cliff, deciding in your writings about things of which you are ignorant? Why do you not keep to what you have received from the Fathers and Doctors of the Church? You introduce novelties! — Eusebius
Those who live by mystery & charlatanerie, fearing you would render them useless by simplifying the Christian philosophy - the most sublime and benevolent, but most perverted system that ever shone on man - endeavored to crush your well-earned & well-deserved fame. — Thomas Jefferson
The government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims. — John Adams
Let us by wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties. — James Monroe
The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. — Thomas Jefferson
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. — James Madison
We're not at a point in time to be taking chances with children and young people in the church. The Holy Father himself said... there is no room in the priesthood or religious life for someone who has abused a child. I think he's right. — Roger Mahony
When we adopt—and when we encourage a culture of adoption in our churches and communities—we’re picturing something that’s true about our God. We, like Jesus, see what our Father is doing and do likewise (John 5:19). And what our Father is doing, it turns out, is fighting for orphans, making them sons and daughters. — Russell D. Moore
I am the product of the sustained indignation of a branded grandfather, the militant protest of my grandmother, the disciplined resentment of my father and mother, and the power of the mass action of the church. — Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
'Eat my flesh,' Jesus says, 'and drink my blood.' The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, he delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children — Clement of Alexandria
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. — Thomas Jefferson
It (a baseball box score) doesn't tell how big you are, what church you attend, what color you are, or how your father voted in the last election. It just tells what kind of baseball player you were on that particular day. — Branch Rickey
As in the natural life a child must have a father and a mother, so in the supernatural life of grace a true child of the Church must have God for his Father and Mary for his mother. If he prides himself on having God for his Father but does not give to Mary the tender affection of a true child, he is an impostor and his father is the devil. — Louis de Montfort
... happily the Government of the United States... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. — George Washington
When we place our faith in Christ, God becomes our Father, we become his children, other believers become our brothers and sisters, and the church becomes our spiritual family. The family of God includes all believers in the past, the present, and the future. — Rick Warren
The church is not a place where perfect people gather to say perfect things, or have perfect thoughts, or have perfect feelings. The Church is a place where imperfect people gather to provide encouragement, support, and service to each other as we press on in our journey to return to our Heavenly Father. — Joseph B. Wirthlin
Question with boldness even the existence of a god. — Thomas Jefferson
Mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity. — John Adams
Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion. — John Adams
The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion. — Thomas Paine
As long as we see church life as a meeting we’ll miss its reality and its depth. If the truth were told, the Scriptures tell us very little about how the early church met. It tells us volumes about how they shared life together. They didn’t see the church as a meeting or an institution, but as a family living under Father. — Wayne Jacobsen
I can't tell Black people to fight a war that is Israel's war. What kind of leader will you be, or should I be, to allow these babies Black, white and brown, to fight Israel's war, because Zionists dominate the government of the United States of America and her banking system. — Louis Farrakhan
I never liked the Hierarchy of the Church-an equality in the teacher of Religion, and a dependence on the people, are republican sentiments-but if the Clergy combine, they will have their influence on Government — Rufus King
My husband is from Hawaii and his father who was also born in Hawaii was a teenager when Pearl Harbor happened, right before church and he ran up and got on the roof of his grandfather's house and watched the planes go over. — Sigourney Weaver
No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever. — Thomas Jefferson
I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies. — Benjamin Franklin
If I repeated some passages from the homilies of the Church Fathers, in the second or third century, about how we must treat the poor, some would accuse me of giving a Marxist homily. — Pope Francis
Baptize first the children; and if they can speak for themselves, let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them. — Hippolytus of Rome
When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. — Benjamin Franklin
Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiment in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. — George Washington
I feel like the Church should have the most amazing entertainment and the best music, because we know the author and the source of music and entertainment, which is our Father. — Danny Gokey
When I was a small boy, my father told me never to recommend a church or a woman to anyone. And I have found it wise never to recommend a restaurant either. Something always goes wrong with the cheese souffle. — Edmund G. Love
In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and both by precept and example inculcated on mankind. — Samuel Adams
My father was a minister for 50 years with Pentecostal Church of God in Christ. We prayed about everything, every day, then he always said, "Amen. God is love." I thought God is love was one word. Like "Godislove." And it took me a long time to learn what that really meant. — Denzel Washington
It is the Holy Ghost in us that is everything, and the Father is willing to bestow Him upon the weakest if he will only ask in the spirit of implicit faith and entire self-surrender. My cry these days is for a Pentecost, first on myself and my missionary brethren, and then on the native Church, and then on the heathen at large. — Griffith John
The responsibility of building leadership in the Church belongs to the father and the mother. . . . As youth grow and mature through their teenage years and move toward adulthood, the Church picks up an important role in this process of giving youth an opportunity to lead, but it begins in the home. — Dieter F. Uchtdorf
The church's final word is not 'church' but the glory of the Father and the Son in the Spirit of liberty — Jürgen Moltmann
What does it mean to be a Saint? In the Lord's Church, the members are Latter-day Saints, and they attempt to emulate the Savior, follow His teachings, and receive saving ordinances in order to live in the celestial kingdom with God the Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. — Quentin L. Cook
The idea of separating church and state by the Founding Fathers of America was freedom from the domination of one form of religion, because many of them left England, because they were persecuted by the church, because they want to express their Christian faith in a different way. So it was a bit of warfare between Christians. — John Lennox
The Christian test was a willingness to believe in the one Jesus Christ and His Message of salvation. What was demanded was not criticism but credulity. The Church Fathers observed that in the realm of thought only heresy had a history. — Daniel J. Boorstin
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. — Thomas Jefferson
I would beg the wise and learned fathers [of the church] to consider with all diligence the difference which exists between matters of mere opinion and matters of demonstration. — Galileo Galilei
God has appointed two kinds of government in the world, which are distinct in their nature, and ought never to be confounded together; one of which is called civil, the other ecclesiastical government. — Isaac Backus
Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance. — James Madison
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of church fathers quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about church fathers to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of church fathers quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
