From: “EarlyChirstianWritings.com – A Handbook of Patrology – FIRST PERIOD BEGINNING AND GROWTH OF EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE, THE FATHERS OF THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES, SECTION I, THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS”
- St. Clement
- St. Ignatius
- St. Polycarp and the Acts of His Martyrdom
- Pseudo-Barnabas
- The Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles (Didache)
- The Homily Called Second Epistle of St. Clement
- The Shepherd of Hermas
- Papias and the Presbyters
- The Apostles’ Creed
“Apostolic Fathers” is the name given to a certain number of writers or writings (several of which are anonymous) dating from the end of the first or from the first half of the second century. The name has been selected because the authors are supposed to have known the Apostles and also because their works represent a teaching derived immediately, or almost immediately, from the Apostles. These writings are, indeed, a continuation of the Gospels and of Apostolic literature.
On the other hand, these works have neither the intense vividness of the canonical books nor the fullness of theological thought found in the literature of a later period. With the exception of St. Ignatius, their authors do not show much intellectual power or ability, which goes to prove that, in the beginning, the Church recruited her members chiefly from among the illiterate.
