One of the greatest treasures of the Catholic exegetical tradition, especially when it comes to the Gospels, is St Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea. However, for those who have not approached this text, the claim of authorship can be a bit misleading. For it is the nature of a catena that it is complied and edited rather than written. Hence, the ideas of St Thomas Aquinas do not appear explicitly in this collection; it was simply his genius which collected and synthesized the information we find therein.
In medieval times, it was customary to compile commentaries on Scripture which went verse by verse (or ‘chunk’ by ‘chunk’), which then provided extensive commentary by various Church Fathers or Scriptural authorities. However, the commentary is arranged in such a way that it unfolds in a logical manner, even though the individual quotes come from disparate sources. Hence the meaning of the term ‘catena’ is ‘chain’, suggesting that these Scriptural commentaries ‘link together’ the opinions of multiple authorities on one single subject which forms a chain. The way this appears on the page is by having a part of Scripture appear, then unfolding numerous quotes from different sources which provide commentary on those verses. The change in sources is highlighted by the names of each new speaker appearing before the quotes. This process repeats for an entire book of the Bible, from the first verse to the last.
Of the great catenas that come down to us from medieval times, St Thoams Aquians’ Catena Aurea is certainly one of the most, if not the most, famous of them all. Having been commissioned by Pope Urban IV to create this catena, St Thomas diligently set to work and eventually produced the masterwork we know and possess today.
Aside from the fact that it is one of the few full-length catenas we have from the medieval period, this work is quite superb on its own internal merits. Going through all four of the Gospels, this book provides commentary on every verse from the Fathers of the Church, which are weaved together in a spectacular fashion, showcasing Thomas’ great knowledge of the source material as well as his uncanny ability to synthesize ideas from differing sources.
However, for those curious to see what this work is all about, I will only provide one word of caution. Although it is certainly possible, and would be quite laudable, to read this work from beginning to end, this may not be the best way to approach it, at least at the beginning. Instead, because the commentary is so dense, I have found that this work is best used as a reference guide. If, for example, I need some fresh light on a passage of Scripture, I will turn to this book and see what the Church Fathers had to say. Or, if I want to meditate on a particular passage from the Gospel, like the readings from the day’s Mass, I will use this book as my companion. Once again, this is just what I have found helpful for myself, and I do not wish to discourage anyone from reading it cover to cover. Instead, I am trying to keep people from getting discouraged when they see the depth of this work, and think that they must start on page one and go all the way to the end to derive any benefit from it.