Datasets:

TheAlvaroBalbin
/

catena

id stringlengths 15 20	citation stringlengths 22 30	gospel stringclasses 4 values	lemma stringlengths 17 2.34k	text stringlengths 502 21.9k	fathers stringlengths 9 158	n_fragments int64 1 67	commented_verse_keys listlengths 1 20	license stringclasses 1 value
catena.john.1.1	Catena Aurea, John 1:1	Gospel of John	In the beginning was the Word,	(Hom. iv. [iii.] in Joan) While all the other Evangelists begin with the Incarnation, John, passing over the Conception, Nativity, education, and growth, speaks immediately of the Eternal Generation, saying, In the beginning was the Word. (lib. lxxxiii. Quæst. q. 63) The Greek word “logos” signifies both Word and Reas...	Chrysostom, Augustine, Basil, Origen, Hilary, The Council of Ephesus, Alcuin, Theophylact	33	[ "john/1/1" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.2	Catena Aurea, John 1:2	Gospel of John	The same was in the beginning with God	(ii. de Trin. c. 16) Whereas he had said, the Word was God, the fearfulness, and strangeness of the speech disturbed me; the prophets having declared that God was One. But, to quiet my apprehensions, the fisherman reveals the scheme of this so great mystery, and refers all to one, without dishonour, without obliteratin...	Hilary, Theophylact, Chrysostom, Origen, Alcuin	5	[ "john/1/2" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.3	Catena Aurea, John 1:3	Gospel of John	All things were made by him	After speaking of the nature of the Son, he proceeds to His operations, saying, All things were made by him, i. e. every thing whether substance, or property. (ii. de Trin. c. 17) Or thus: [It is said], the Word indeed was in the beginning, but it may be that He was not before the beginning. But what saith he; All thi...	Alcuin, Hilary, Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, Origen	19	[ "john/1/3" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.4	Catena Aurea, John 1:4	Gospel of John	In him was life. (Vulg. quod factum est in ipso vita erat.)	(in 1 Joh.) The Evangelist having said that every creature was made by the Word, lest perchance any one might think that His will was changeable, as though He willed on a sudden to make a creature, which from eternity he had not made; he took care to shew that, though a creature was made in time, in the Wisdom of the C...	Bede, Augustine, Origen, Hilary, Chrysostom, Theophylact	10	[ "john/1/4" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.5	Catena Aurea, John 1:5	Gospel of John	And the light shineth in darkness.	(tr. 1. c. 19) Whereas that life is the light of men, but foolish hearts cannot receive that light, being so incumbered with sins that they cannot see it; for this cause lest any should think there is no light near them, because they cannot see it, he continues: And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness compr...	Augustine, Origen, Chrysostom, Bede	9	[ "john/1/5" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.6	Catena Aurea, John 1:6-8	Gospel of John	There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.	(Tr. ii. c. 2) What is said above, refers to the Divinity of Christ. He came to us in the form of man, but man in such sense, as that the Godhead was concealed within Him. And therefore there was sent before a great man, to declare by his witness that He was more than man. And who was this? He was a man. Not an Angel,...	Augustine, Theophylact, Chrysostom, Alcuin, Origen, Bede	13	[ "john/1/6", "john/1/7", "john/1/8" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.9	Catena Aurea, John 1:9	Gospel of John	That was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.	(in Joan. Tr. ii) What Light it is to which John bears witness, he shews himself, saying, That was the true Light. (Hom. in Joan. vii. [vi.] 1) Or thus; Having said above that John had come, and was sent, to bear witness of the Light, lest any from the recent coming of the witness, should infer the same of Him who is ...	Augustine, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Bede, Origen	9	[ "john/1/9" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.10	Catena Aurea, John 1:10	Gospel of John	He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.	(Tr. in Joan. ii. c. 8) The Light which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world, came here in the flesh; because while He was here in His Divinity alone, the foolish, blind, and un-righteous could not discern Him; those of whom it is said above, The darkness comprehended it not. Hence the text; He was in the wo...	Augustine, Origen, Chrysostom, Theophylact	7	[ "john/1/10" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.11	Catena Aurea, John 1:11-13	Gospel of John	He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.	(Hom. in Joan. ix. 1) When He said that the world knew Him not, he referred to the times of the old dispensation, but what follows has reference to the time of his preaching; He came unto his own. (in Joan. Tr. i) Because all things were made by Him. By his own, understand either the world, or Judæa, which He had cho...	Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, Bede	15	[ "john/1/11", "john/1/12", "john/1/13" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.14	Catena Aurea, John 1:14	Gospel of John	And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.	(Tr. ii. 15) Having said, Born of God; to prevent surprise and trepidation at so great, so apparently incredible a grace, as that men should be born of God; to assure us, he says, And the Word was made flesh. Why marvellest thou then that men are born of God? Know that God Himself was born of man. (Hom. xi. [x.] 1) Or...	Augustine, Chrysostom, The Council of Ephesus, Alcuin, Theophylact, Cyril of Alexandria, Hilary, Gregory, Origen	20	[ "john/1/14" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.15	Catena Aurea, John 1:15	Gospel of John	John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.	He had said before that there was a man sent to bear witness; now he gives definitely the forerunner’s own testimony, which plainly declared the excellence of His Human Nature and the Eternity of His Godhead. John bare witness of Him. (Hom. in Joan. xiii. [xii.] 1, 2, 3) Or he introduces this, as if to say, Do not sup...	Alcuin, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Augustine	7	[ "john/1/15" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.16	Catena Aurea, John 1:16-17	Gospel of John	And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.	(in Joan. t. vi. 3.) This is to be considered a continuation of the Baptist’s testimony to Christ, a point which has escaped the attention of many, who think that from this to, He hath declared Him, (v. 18) St. John the Apostle is speaking. But the idea that on a sudden, and, as it would seem, unseasonably, the discour...	Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine	5	[ "john/1/16", "john/1/17" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.18	Catena Aurea, John 1:18	Gospel of John	No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.	(in Joan. t. vi. §. 2) Heraclcon asserts, that this is a declaration of the disciple, not of the Baptist: an unreasonable supposition; for if the words, Of His fulness have we all received, are the Baptist’s, does not the connexion run naturally, that he receiving of the grace of Christ, the second in the place of the ...	Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Gregory, Hilary, Bede	21	[ "john/1/18" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.19	Catena Aurea, John 1:19-23	Gospel of John	And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him...	(in Joan. tom. ii. c. 29) This is the second testimony of John the Baptist to Christ, the first began with, This is He of Whom I spake; and ended with, He hath declared Him. (in loc.) Or, after the introduction above of John’s testimony to Christ, is preferred before me, the Evangelist now adds when the above testimon...	Origen, Theophylact, Chrysostom, Augustine, Gregory	22	[ "john/1/19", "john/1/20", "john/1/21", "john/1/22", "john/1/23" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.24	Catena Aurea, John 1:24-28	Gospel of John	And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou he not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred be...	(in Joan. tom. vi. c. 13) The questions of the priests and Levites being answered, another mission comes from the Pharisees: And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. So far as it is allowable to form a conjecture from the discourse itself here, I should say that it was the third occasion of John’s giving his witn...	Origen, Chrysostom, Gregory, Augustine, Theophylact, Gloss, Alcuin	20	[ "john/1/24", "john/1/25", "john/1/26", "john/1/27", "john/1/28" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.29	Catena Aurea, John 1:29-31	Gospel of John	The next day John seeth Jesus coming to him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing wi...	(tom. vi. c. 30) After this testimony, Jesus is seen coming to John, not only persevering in his confession, but also advanced in goodness: as is intimated by the second day. Wherefore it is said, The next day John seeth Jesus coming to him. Long before this, the Mother of Jesus, as soon as she had conceived Him, went ...	Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, Gregory, Gloss	16	[ "john/1/29", "john/1/30", "john/1/31" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.32	Catena Aurea, John 1:32-34	Gospel of John	And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I ...	(Hom. xvii. [al. xvi.] 2) John having made a declaration, so astonishing to all his hearers, viz. that He, whom he pointed out, did of Himself take away the sins of the world, confirms it by a reference to the Father and the Holy Spirit. For John might be asked, how did you know Him? Wherefore he replies beforehand, by...	Chrysostom, Augustine, Gregory	11	[ "john/1/32", "john/1/33", "john/1/34" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.35	Catena Aurea, John 1:35-36	Gospel of John	Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!	(Hom. xviii. [al. xvii.] 1) Many not having attended to John’s words at first, he rouses them a second time: Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples. (Hom. in Vigil. S. And.) John stood, because he had ascended that citadel of all excellences, from which no temptations could cast him down: his di...	Chrysostom, Bede, Theophylact, Augustine, Alcuin	10	[ "john/1/35", "john/1/36" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.37	Catena Aurea, John 1:37-40	Gospel of John	And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto Him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with h...	John having borne witness that Jesus was the Lamb of God, the disciples who had been hitherto with him, in obedience to his command, followed Jesus: And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. (Hom. xviii. 1 et sq.) Observe; when he said, He that cometh after me is made before me, and, Whose shoe’s...	Alcuin, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Origen, Augustine	16	[ "john/1/37", "john/1/38", "john/1/39", "john/1/40" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.41	Catena Aurea, John 1:41-42	Gospel of John	He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.	(Chrys. Hom. xix. 1) Andrew kept not our Lord’s words to himself; but ran in haste to his brother, to report the good tidings: He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. (Hom. in Vig. St. Andr.) This is truly to find the Lord; viz. to...	Chrysostom, Bede, Augustine, Alcuin	10	[ "john/1/41", "john/1/42" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.43	Catena Aurea, John 1:43-46	Gospel of John	The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph....	(Hom. xix) After gaining these disciples, Christ proceeded to convert others, viz. Philip and Nathanael: The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee. Leaving, that is, Judæa, where John was baptizing, out of respect to the Baptist, and not to appear to lower his office, so long as it continued. He was going t...	Chrysostom, Alcuin, Theophylact, Augustine	12	[ "john/1/43", "john/1/44", "john/1/45", "john/1/46" ]	public-domain
catena.john.1.47	Catena Aurea, John 1:47-51	Gospel of John	Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art ...	(Hom. xix) Nathanael, in difficulty as to Christ coming out of Nazareth, shewed the care with which he had read the Scriptures: his not rejecting the tidings when brought him, shewed his strong desire for Christ’s coming. He thought that Philip might be mistaken as to the place. It follows, Jesus saw Nathanael coming t...	Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, Gregory	11	[ "john/1/47", "john/1/48", "john/1/49", "john/1/50", "john/1/51" ]	public-domain
catena.john.2.1	Catena Aurea, John 2:1-4	Gospel of John	And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet co...	(Hom. xxi. [al. xx.] 1) Our Lord being known in Galilee, they invite Him to a marriage: And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. Galilee is a province; Cana a village in it. (Hom. xxi. 1) They invite our Lord to the marriage, not as a great person, but merely as one they knew, one of the many; for w...	Chrysostom, Alcuin, Augustine, Bede	14	[ "john/2/1", "john/2/2", "john/2/3", "john/2/4" ]	public-domain

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Catena: an open, cited corpus of the Catholic tradition

A clean, machine-readable, public-domain corpus of the Catholic tradition where every unit of text carries a canonical citation, the text is stored verbatim (never paraphrased or truncated), and the tradition's own citation graph is included as loadable data. Built for grounded, cite-or-refuse retrieval.

Source, ingest code, a live web explorer, and an MCP grounding server: https://github.com/AlvaroBalbin/catena

Subsets

config	rows	what
`summa`	3,115	The Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, one row per article, with its canonical citation (`ST I, q.2, a.3`) and full verbatim text.
`catena_aurea`	814	The Catena Aurea - Aquinas's patristic "golden chain" on the four Gospels, one row per verse-pericope: the verse commented on, the Church Fathers in the chain, and their full verbatim commentary.
`roman_catechism`	929	The Roman Catechism (Catechism of the Council of Trent), one row per subsection, with its Part and heading and full verbatim text. Public-domain McHugh & Callan translation (1923).
`douay_rheims`	35,786	The Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), one row per verse, English.
`clementine_vulgate`	35,809	The Clementine Vulgate (Sixto-Clementine, 1592), one row per verse, Latin - keyed identically to the Douay-Rheims so a citation resolves to both languages.
`scripture_edges`	9,449	The citation graph: one row per (Summa article -> Scripture verse) edge.
`father_edges`	3,783	The patristic golden chain as edges: one row per (Catena Aurea pericope -> Gospel verse it comments on), with the Fathers who speak - which Fathers weigh in on which verse.
`internal_edges`	3,775	The citation graph: one row per (Summa article -> Summa article) edge.

from datasets import load_dataset

summa   = load_dataset("TheAlvaroBalbin/catena", "summa")
fathers = load_dataset("TheAlvaroBalbin/catena", "catena_aurea")
verses  = load_dataset("TheAlvaroBalbin/catena", "douay_rheims")
latin   = load_dataset("TheAlvaroBalbin/catena", "clementine_vulgate")
edges   = load_dataset("TheAlvaroBalbin/catena", "scripture_edges")

Every verse shares a verse_key (john/1/14) across the two Bibles and the edge tables, so the subsets join cleanly: an article's Scripture citations resolve to real verse text in English and Latin.

The three disciplines

Lossless. Text is captured verbatim from the source edition; only whitespace is normalized. Nothing is summarized or silently truncated.
Addressable. Every unit has a stable, canonical citation and a join key.
Grounded. The reference demo (in the GitHub repo) answers only from retrieved units, always cites, and refuses when the corpus does not contain the answer.

Sources and rights

All texts are public domain by age and are redistributed with their edition attributed. Full provenance and the per-text rights reasoning are in data/SOURCES.md.

Summa Theologica - trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 2nd rev. ed. (1920-22). Public domain.
Catena Aurea - Aquinas's compilation of the Church Fathers on the Gospels, in the Oxford translation edited by J. H. Newman (1841-45). Public domain.
Roman Catechism (Catechism of the Council of Trent) - tr. J. A. McHugh & C. J. Callan (1923); public domain in the US (pre-1929). A different work from the copyrighted modern Catechism, which is not included.
Douay-Rheims Bible - Challoner revision (1749-52), via Project Gutenberg #1581. Public domain.
Clementine Vulgate - Sixto-Clementine (1592); electronic edition by The Clementine Vulgate Project (ed. M. Tweedale, 2005), released to the public domain.

Copyrighted texts (the modern Catechism, modern Bible or encyclical translations) are not included. The license: other tag denotes public-domain-by-age; there is no rights holder to waive rights, and none is implied.

Citation graph coverage

96.8% of the Summa's Scripture citations parse (8,491 of 8,768). Because a single citation to a verse range or a whole chapter touches several verses, those expand to 9,449 verse-level article -> verse edges here (scripture_edges); chapter-level citations and the full adjacency maps are in graph/. 99% of the Summa's internal cross-references resolve into 3,775 article -> article edges (internal_edges). The graph builder and coverage details are in the GitHub repository.

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