Catena Aurea: Complete in Five Volumes
Catena Aurea: Complete in Five Volumes
Verbum caro factum est. The Fathers of the Church on the four Gospels, set in order as links in a golden chain.
Not yet released. This edition is set and in production. Write to the press and we will let you know the day it goes on sale.
On release, each volume is ordered separately, and orders are placed and shipped through IngramSpark. This page is a catalogue listing.
About this edition
The Catena Aurea, the Golden Chain, is Saint Thomas Aquinas's commentary on the four Gospels, made about the year 1263 at the request of Pope Urban IV. It is unlike his other works. Aquinas writes almost nothing in his own voice, but gathers from the Greek and Latin Fathers, Chrysostom, Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory, Bede and many more, the sentences that best open each verse, and sets them in order as links in a chain, every one named with its author.
For each passage the Gospel text is given first, and beneath it the comments of the Fathers in succession, so that the reader has, in one continuous reading, the mind of the early Church upon the Gospel.
This Sanctified Souls Press edition presents the whole of the Catena in the translation edited by John Henry Newman, Oxford, 1841 to 1845, in five volumes on cream paper. The editors' textual apparatus is set aside for continuous reading; the Scripture references and every Father-by-Father attribution are kept.
The volumes
Chapters 1 to 13, with the compiler's introduction: from the genealogy and the Nativity through the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of the kingdom. Paperback and hardcover, 552 pages.
Chapters 14 to 28: from the feeding of the five thousand and the Transfiguration through the discourse on the last things to the Passion and the Resurrection. Paperback and hardcover, 508 pages.
The shortest and swiftest of the Gospels, from the preaching of John the Baptist to the empty tomb, opened verse by verse. Paperback and hardcover, 380 pages.
The Gospel of mercy: the Infancy narratives, the parables of the lost sheep and the prodigal son, and the long journey to Jerusalem. Paperback and hardcover, 816 pages.
The Gospel of the Word made flesh: from In the beginning was the Word to the Resurrection, with Chrysostom, Augustine and the Fathers upon the deepest of the four. Paperback and hardcover, 654 pages.
Details
- Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), of the Order of Preachers, Doctor of the Church
- Translation edited by John Henry Newman, John Henry Parker, Oxford, 1841–1845
- One work complete, in five volumes: St. Matthew in two parts, then St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John
- Sanctified Souls, Heritage Editions
- Paperback and hardcover, 6 × 9, cream paper
Cover: St. Thomas Aquinas Aided by Sts. Peter and Paul, Bartolomeo degli Erri (Italian, active c. 1450–1480), tempera on wood. Public domain. The five grounds run light to dark across the set.
