About

About Via Patrum

Via Patrum means “the way of the Fathers”: how the Church Fathers spoke, acted, argued, lived and died. It is a free library of their writing in fresh English translations from the Greek and Latin, for anyone who wants to read the early Church in its own words.

What is here

Topics gather what the Fathers taught on one subject, earliest first. Fathers lists every writer in date order with what each one wrote. Works lets you read a whole book straight through, with the Greek or Latin one tap away and audio for many of them. Scripture shows where the Fathers quote or explain each book of the Bible. Timeline answers the questions readers ask most from the writers' own words, earliest first. Listen plays the works read aloud, and Games has a daily puzzle and a story game drawn from the texts.

Books to keep

Every book as EPUB and PDF, plus Word for Logos and audiobooks. Free to download. Get them on the downloads page.

So far: 404 works live · 15,656 of 22,216 sections translated · 329 held for review before they go up.

How the English is made

The English is a fresh translation from the Greek and Latin, made with AI help and checked against the source. Each work names the printed edition it follows and lists any other prints it was checked against, under About this text. It is a study library, not a critical edition. Some passages under Topics still use the public-domain Ante-Nicene Fathers English from the 1880s; those pages say so, and our fresh English translations replace them as they are finished.

The full method, for scholars, is on How we translate.

Reading the Timeline marks

The marks that say a writer teaches or rejects a point are our reading of the passage, for study. They are not a ranking of who was right. Start with free will over time.

Help and support

To report a mistake or to help, see Help us. If the library helps you, you can support it on GitHub Sponsors.