[L. catēna chain.] A chain, a connected series:
a. (More fully catena patrum): A string or series of extracts from the writings of the fathers, forming a commentary on some portion of Scripture; also, a chronological series of extracts to prove the existence of a continuous tradition on some point of doctrine. Also transf.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 64. For a parochiall Minister … to finish his circuit in … a Harmony and a Catena.
1684. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, I. 261. The ancient glosses and catena upon scripture.
1858. R. Vaughan, Ess. & Rev., I. 29. The authorship of many, though assigned in the catenæ to Origen, is … open to question.
1862. Maurice, Mor. & Met. Philos., IV. 192. A catena of opinions in favour of an ecclesiastical system.
1882–3. Schaff, Relig. Encycl., I. 419. The true catena consists merely of extracts from a … number of exegetes.
b. generally. ‘Chain, string.’
1862. Sat. Rev., 15 March, 303. The Mausoleum is mentioned as existing by a catena of writers reaching down to the 12th century of the Christian era.
1868. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 July, 4/2. Carried down in an unbroken catena of conscious observance.
1883. Spectator, 6 Oct., 1274. His speech is but a catena of Tory platitudes writ large.
1884. F. Harrison, in 19th Cent., March, 494. One long catena of difficulty.
