Doctor of the Church
Just as Saint John of Ávila was an inspiration for his contemporaries, he was also an inspiration for many of the later spiritual writers: Antonio de Molina, Luis de la Palma, Luis de la Puente, Carlos Borromeo, Bartolomé de los Mártires, Diego de Estella, Pierre de Bérulle, Alonso Rodríguez, Francisco de Sales, Alfonso María de Ligorio, Antonio María Claret, among many others.
At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, within the framework of the XXVI World Youth Day held in Spain (August 2011), Pope Benedict XVI announced that the saint from Ávila would be named Doctor of the Church.
The official proclamation would come the following year, on October 7, 2012. That day the patron saint of the Spanish clergy received the distinction of Doctor alongside the German mystic Saint Hildegard of Bingen. Saint John of Ávila is the fourth Spanish saint to achieve the title of Doctor of the Church.