First Sunday in Lent, Year A: Temptations of the Lord

The PDF file for this Sunday's Catena can be downloaded here.

As always, St. Thomas arranges the Fathers' insights into sections of literal, moral, allegorical and anagogical (eschatological) interpretations.

I have retained the traditional usage of pinnacle to translate the Greek ptereugion, which after all means the same thing as pinnaculum: little wing. It seems to refer to a smaller tower that juts above the main roof. There was one of these on the southeast corner of the temple's outer wall, where, tradition claims, the Apostle James (the less), Jerusalem's first bishop, was thrown to his death. Remigius and the Gloss both describe this as the place where the teachers sat and thus was a status symbol.

Ash Wednesday

The Catena for this day may be found in PDF format by clicking here.

This is an excellent example of St. Thomas's genius for selecting from a great variety of Fathers from both East and West and then stringing them together in one running commentary. There is, however, an interesting section where St. Augustine notes a difference between Latin and Greek editions of St. Matthew's Gospel. I haven't checked this yet myself, but according to Augustine the Greek editions are missing a phrase contained in the Latin editions. But right along St. Augustine's comments, St. Thomas brings in a Greek Father commenting on the phrase!