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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
Observe how he blends all together, the Gentiles, the Jews, the Apostles, the Prophets, and Christ, and illustrates the union sometimes from the body, and sometimes from the building: "built," saith he, "upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets;" that is, the Apostles and Prophets are a foundation, and he places the Apostles first, though they are in order of time last, doubtless to represent and express this, that both the one and the other are alike a foundation, and that the whole is one building, and that there is one …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Wishing to show the close union of the Gentiles with the prophets and apostles, he says: "having been built upon," as if saying: the prophets and apostles serve as the foundation, while you completed the rest of the building, so that all together formed one temple of God. This is what it means to be built upon the patriarchs and prophets, which in another place he calls grafting in (Rom. 11:19). He placed the apostles first, although in time they were the last. Christ holds all things upon Himself. …
Cyprian
You have written also, that on my account the Church has now a portion of herself in a state of dispersion, although the whole people of the Church are collected, and united, and joined to itself in an undivided concord: they alone have remained without, who even, if they had been within, would have had to be cast out. …
Western Saints
Thomas Aquinas
Consequently, when he says "built upon the foundation of the Apostles," he clarifies what has been said. It is customary in the Scriptures that the figure, called metonymy, is used where the container is substituted for what it contains, as a house sometimes refers to those who are in the house. The Apostle employs this figure of speech concerning those who are in the house of God, the faithful; as though they were one house, he compares them to a building. Regarding this he does two things: First, he sets down what he intended. …
Bonaventure
There are, in the Church, three fundamental ranks: the patriarchal, the prophetical, and the apostolical. "Therefore, you are now no longer strangers. You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." The patriarchs were the ancestors of the apostles according to the flesh and according to the promise. This order corresponds to the Father as He is in Himself. The prophetical order corresponds to the Father as He is in the Son, and the apostolical order, to the Father as He is in the Holy Spirit.
Translation