About the set (four volumes): St. Thomas Aquinas' Catena Aurea (1841) is the masterpiece anthology of Patristic commentary on the Gospels and includes the work of over eighty Church Fathers.
Imagine a round-table discussion of the Gospels among the supreme theologians of the Church. The Catena Aurea is very close!
St Thomas Aquinas compiled this opus from sermons and commentaries on the Gospels written by the early Church Fathers, arranging their thoughts in such a way that they form a continuous commentary on each Gospel.
For each of the four Gospel writers (Volume I: St Matthew; Volume II: St Mark; Volume III: St Luke; Volume IV: St John), the Catena Aurea starts by indicating the verses to be analyzed, then taking each verse phrase-by-phrase, provides the early Fathers' insights into the passage.
In the modern world, the Catena Aurea is of immense use to priests writing homilies, in the private study of the Gospels, family reading, and is full of thought for those who are engaged in religious instruction. It is the perfect companion to study the Scriptures in detail and receive the wisdom of our Church Fathers.
The Catena Aurea is the only work that St Thomas Aquinas was known to carry around with him. This edition was published in 2022 by Baronius Press.
About the author: Italian Dominican theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was one of the most influential medieval thinkers of Scholasticism and the father of the Thomistic school of theology. Born of a wealthy family at Rocca Secca, near Naples, in Italy, he disappointed his family by joining a poor order of preachers (1244) that followed the Rule of Dominic and were therefore known as Dominicans. In 1245, he began to study in Paris, France with Albertus Magnus whose favourite pupil he became.
In 1248, he accompanied Albert to Cologne, Germany. From there, Thomas returned to Paris (1252) where he became known as a great teacher and theologian. He spent some time in Rome as a papal advisor, returned to Paris to teach for a period and then returned to Naples to found a house of studies (1272). In 1274, on the way to a church council at Lyons, France, he took sick and died at the age of 49.
His works show him to be a brilliant lecturer, a clear thinker and an Aristotelian. In an age which was uncomfortable with the notion that the universe could be known apart from revelation, he pioneered the use of the Greek philosophy that featured the power of reason to demonstrate that God and his universe could be understood by reason guided by faith. His large girth and slow, deliberate style earned him the nickname "The Dumb Ox!"
He was the composer of several memorable religious hymns - O Salutaris Hostia and Pange Lingua being the most familiar to modern worshippers. His extensive writings explored the relationship between the mind of man and the mind of God and his synthesis of knowledge relating to this joining of intellect and religious belief, entitled The Summa Theologica (1267-1273), earned him a lasting reputation among scholars and religious alike. An earlier work, Summa Contra Gentiles (1258 - 1260), is written in a style that attempts to establish the truth of Christian religious belief in arguments addressed to an intelligent, but non-Christian reader. (Source: Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI)
A shorter biography: Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 in Sicily. He joined the Abbey of Montecassino at the age of five to begin his studies. As a renowed theologian, he travelled all over Europe. In addition to lecturing, Thomas Aquinas participated in public life and was an advisor to both kings and popes. Fifty years after his death, Pope John Paul XXII proclaimed Thomas Aquinas a saint. In 1879, Pope Leo XII made St Thomas Aquinas the patron saint of education.
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