Catena: Bible & Commentaries

The Bible has been changing lives for thousands of years.

Moses wrote of a God who hears the cry of His people. David sang to Him from the cave and the palace. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote down what they saw and heard of Jesus. Paul wrote from prison to churches he loved. Their words have carried people through grief, doubt, exile, and joy for a hundred generations, and they are still doing it today.

Catena helps you read the Bible with the understanding of 2,000 years of the most influential Christians.

We collect the writings of faithful Christians, men and women who read these same pages within a few generations of the apostles. Athanasius, who was exiled five times for holding to the divinity of Christ. Antony, who heard one verse read in church and walked into the desert. Basil, who built the first hospital. Gregory, John Chrysostom, Augustine, Cyril, Ephrem, and more than 100 others. They were bishops, monks, teachers, and martyrs. They were critical to nurturing the faith of their communities, and suffered for the faith we still hold. Catena puts their words beside every verse.

Catena also brings the largest library of verse-tagged video and podcast Bible studies and sermons, so you can hear the same passage preached by priests and teachers today.

All of it for one purpose: to help you see the love, joy, mercy, and forgiveness of God that is woven through Scripture from the first page to the last.

EVERY VERSE, EXPLAINED
Tap any verse and read what the Church Fathers said about it. Over 200,000 passages of commentary from more than 100 Fathers of the East and the West, arranged verse by verse so you never have to go looking.

A LIBRARY OF COMPLETE WORKS
Read the Fathers in full, not only in excerpts.
- Athanasius's On the Incarnation
- Augustine's Confessions and City of God
- Life of Antony
- Chrysostom's homilies on Matthew and John
- Cyril of Alexandria on Luke and John
- Basil, Gregory, Origen, Ambrose, Ephrem, the Apostolic Fathers, and many more.

Over 1,500 complete texts, and every Scripture reference inside them opens the verse.

BIBLE STUDIES AND SERMONS, TAGGED BY VERSE
Access thousands of videos and podcasts, every one transcribed and tagged to the verses it teaches on.
Open a verse and jump to the moment it was preached.
Read the transcript beside the video, and keep watching in picture-in-picture while you read.

THE BIBLE IN YOUR LANGUAGE
Over 220 translations in 71 languages, including the Van Dyck Arabic and the Bohairic Coptic New Testament. Go deeper with the Hebrew and Greek interlinear, parallel passages, related verses, footnotes, and cross-references.

THE DAILY READINGS
The Coptic, Ethiopian, Catholic, and Greek lectionaries, with the Synaxarium, the feasts, and the fasting seasons. Open the app and today's readings are waiting.

FIND IT IN SECONDS
One search across Scripture, commentary, the Fathers, their books, and talks.

MAKE IT YOURS
Highlight in the colors you choose, take notes, and gather verses and commentary into collections. Sign in and everything stays in sync across your devices. Save books for reading offline.

READ YOUR WAY
Choose your font, size, and spacing. Read on beige paper, in the light, or in dark mode. A Quote of the Day from the Fathers and the early monks of the desert, with a home screen widget.

We pray that Catena may be an edifying resource in your relationship with God, to whom is due all glory, honor, and dominion. Now and forever, and unto the ages of all ages, Amen.