The term Mother Church denotes several meanings within Christianity. By general understanding, it may refer to either a religious faith, or a church (Basilica, Parish, or community church) building which draws as a "mother" or principal source of faith or authority adhered to by its believers.

The word "Mother Church" (in its abstract form) is used as a reference to the Universal Church often used by Christians who relate it as the Bride of Christ.

This term is most often used among Roman Catholics as the Holy Mother Church or Sancta Mater Ecclesia (Lat.). It is used as "Designating the whole Christian Church or all Christians collectively."

By contrast in its concrete form, the mother church can refer to the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran (see below).

Bingham in 1855 writes "Ecclesia matrix, a mother-church, is sometimes taken for an original church planted immediately by the Apostles, whence others were derived and propogated afterward. ... And in this sense the Church of Jerusalem is called 'the mother-church of all churches in the world.'" He also refers to "Arles the mother church of France, because supposed to be planted by the Apostle's missionary Trophimus, first bishop of the place."

Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, PCPA (born Rita Antoinette Rizzo on April 20, 1923) is an American Roman Catholic nun who founded the Eternal Word Television Network. In 1944 she entered the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, a Franciscan religious order for women, as a postulant, and a year later she was admitted to the order as a novice. She went on to found a new house for the order in 1962 in Irondale, Alabama, where the EWTN is headquartered, and in 1996 she initiated the building of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady of the Angels monastery in Hanceville, Alabama. Mother Angelica hosted shows on EWTN until she suffered a stroke in 2001. She continues to reside at the monastery in Hanceville.

The future Mother Angelica was born Rita Antoinette Rizzo, on April 20, 1923, in Canton, Ohio. She was the only child of John and Mae Helen Rizzo (née Gianfrancesco). Her father abandoned the family when Rita was very young, and her parents divorced in 1929. Her mother maintained full custody of Rita, but struggled with chronic depression and poverty. Her maternal grandparents kept Rita at times.