Commentarium Style Guide

A Commentarium is a patristic or theological commentary on a specific Bible verse. These link the words of Scripture to the wisdom of the Church Fathers.

How Commentaries Work

Each commentary connects three things:

1. A Bible verse — the passage being commented on (selected via search)
2. A Church Father — the author of the commentary (selected via the author_id search)
3. The commentary text — the body of the commentary

author_id

Search for the Church Father by name when submitting. The form will let you select from saints already in the archive, and the author_id is set automatically from your selection.

Note

Only saints already in the archive can be listed as commentary authors. If the Church Father is missing, submit them as a Sanctus first, then return to submit the commentary.

Which Authors Qualify

Commentaries are reserved for recognised theological authorities — Church Fathers, Doctors of the Church, and major historical exegetes. This is not the place for modern devotional reflections.

Appropriate	Not appropriate
St. John Chrysostom	A parish homily
St. Augustine	A modern blog post
St. Thomas Aquinas	Personal meditation notes
St. Jerome	A contemporary theologian’s paper

Bible Verse Target

For new submissions, search for the specific Bible verse the commentary addresses and select it from the results.

For corrections, search for the existing commentary you want to fix.

citation

An optional source reference for the commentary — e.g. Homily 88 on the Gospel of John, Commentary on Romans, ch. 5. This helps readers locate the commentary in the Father’s broader corpus.

Good citation	Poor citation
Homily 88 on the Gospel of John	Chrysostom’s homilies
Commentary on the Psalms, Ps. 22	Some old book
De Trinitate, Book IV, ch. 3	(blank — always provide one if possible)

Commentary Text

The body of the commentary in plain text or Markdown.

Formatting Rules

• Fidelity first. Reproduce the Father’s words faithfully. Do not paraphrase, summarise, or modernise the language.
• Standard Markdown — paragraphs, emphasis, block quotes. No raw HTML.
• Quotations from Scripture within the commentary should be set in block quotes:

The Lord declares:

> "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."

And so Chrysostom teaches that this way is not merely
a metaphor, but the very path of salvation...

• Keep it focused. Each commentary should address the specific verse you selected. If the Father’s text ranges over multiple verses, extract only the portion relevant to the target verse.
• Attribution. Do not add “St. Augustine says…” at the beginning — the author_id field handles attribution. Let the text speak directly.

Corrections

When correcting an existing commentary:

1. Search for the commentary by verse text or author to locate its record.
2. Select the record you want to correct.
3. Submit the corrected text.
4. Common corrections: translation errors, missing paragraphs, wrong verse attribution, garbled OCR text.