the founder of a family; "keep the faith of our forefathers"
`Father' is a term of address for priests in some churches (especially the Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Catholic Church); `Padre' is frequentlyused in the military
(Christianity) any of about 70 theologians in the period from the 2nd to the 7th century whose writingestablished and confirmedofficialchurch doctrine; in the Roman Catholic Church some were laterdeclared saints and became Doctor of the Church; the bestknown Latin Church Fathers are Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome; those who wrote in Greek include Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom