---
title: "Colossians 1 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/colossians/1/
description: "He gives thanks for the grace bestowed upon the Colossians and prays for… Colossians 1 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Colossians 1

Colossians 1 is chapter 1 of 4 in the Letter to the Colossians. Here are all 29 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> He gives thanks for the grace bestowed upon the Colossians and prays for them. Christ is the head of the church and the peacemaker through his blood. Paul is his minister.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Colossians 1 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, a brother,
2. to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ Jesus who are at Colossae.
3. Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying for you always.
4. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that you have toward all the saints,
5. because of the hope that has been stored up for you in heaven, which you have heard through the Word of Truth in the Gospel.
6. This has reached you, just as it is present in the whole world, where it grows and bears fruit, as it has also done in you, since the day when you first heard and knew the grace of God in truth,
7. just as you learned it from Epaphras, our most beloved fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ Jesus.
8. And he has also manifested to us your love in the Spirit.
9. Then, too, from the day when we first heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and requesting that you be filled with the knowledge of his will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
10. so that you may walk in a manner worthy of God, being pleasing in all things, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God,
11. being strengthened in every virtue, in accord with the power of his glory, with all patience and longsuffering, with joy,
12. giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to have a share in the portion of the saints, in the light.
13. For he has rescued us from the power of darkness, and he has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love,
14. in whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins.
15. He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature.
16. For in him was created everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers. All things were created through him and in him.
17. And he is before all, and in him all things continue.
18. And he is the head of his body, the Church. He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that in all things he may hold primacy.
19. For the Father is well-pleased that all fullness reside in him,
20. and that, through him, all things be reconciled to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, for the things that are on earth, as well as the things that are in heaven.
21. And you, though you had been, in times past, understood to be foreigners and enemies, with works of evil,
22. yet now he has reconciled you, by his body of flesh, through death, so as to offer you, holy and immaculate and blameless, before him.
23. So then, continue in the faith: well-founded and steadfast and immovable, by the hope of the Gospel that you have heard, which has been preached throughout all creation under heaven, the Gospel of which I, Paul, have become a minister.
24. For now I rejoice in my passion on your behalf, and I complete in my flesh the things that are lacking in the Passion of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the Church.
25. For I have become a minister of the Church, according to the dispensation of God that has been given to me among you, so that I may fulfill the Word of God,
26. the mystery which had remained hidden to past ages and generations, but which now is manifested to his saints.
27. To them, God willed to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ and the hope of his glory within you.
28. We are announcing him, correcting every man and teaching every man, with all wisdom, so that we may offer every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
29. In him, too, I labor, striving according to his action within me, which he works in virtue.

## Colossians 1 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Paulus Apostolus Jesu Christi per voluntatem Dei, et Timotheus frater:
2. eis, qui sunt Colossis, sanctis, et fidelibus fratribus in Christo Jesu.
3. Gratia vobis, et pax a Deo Patre nostro, et Domino Jesu Christo. Gratias agimus Deo, et Patri Domini nostri Jesu Christi semper pro vobis orantes:
4. audientes fidem vestram in Christo Jesu, et dilectionem quam habetis in sanctos omnes
5. propter spem, quæ reposita est vobis in cælis: quam audistis in verbo veritatis Evangelii:
6. quod pervenit ad vos, sicut et in universo mundo est, et fructificat, et crescit sicut in vobis, ex ea die, qua audistis, et cognovistis gratiam Dei in veritate,
7. sicut didicistis ab Epaphra carissimo conservo nostro, qui est fidelis pro vobis minister Christi Jesu,
8. qui etiam manifestavit nobis dilectionem vestram in spiritu.
9. Ideo et nos ex qua die audivimus, non cessamus pro vobis orantes, et postulantes ut impleamini agnitione voluntatis ejus, in omni sapientia et intellectu spiritali:
10. ut ambuletis digne Deo per omnia placentes: in omni opere bono fructificantes, et crescentes in scientia Dei:
11. in omni virtute confortati secundum potentiam claritatis ejus, in omni patientia et longanimitate cum gaudio,
12. gratias agentes Deo Patri, qui dignos nos fecit in partem sortis sanctorum in lumine:
13. qui eripuit nos de potestate tenebrarum, et transtulit in regnum filii dilectionis suæ,
14. in quo habemus redemptionem per sanguinem ejus, remissionem peccatorum:
15. qui est imago Dei invisibilis, primogenitus omnis creaturæ:
16. quoniam in ipso condita sunt universa in cælis, et in terra, visibilia, et invisibilia, sive throni, sive dominationes, sive principatus, sive potestates: omnia per ipsum et in ipso creata sunt:
17. et ipse est ante omnes, et omnia in ipso constant.
18. Et ipse est caput corporis Ecclesiæ, qui est principium, primogenitus ex mortuis: ut sit in omnibus ipse primatum tenens:
19. quia in ipso complacuit, omnem plenitudinem inhabitare:
20. et per eum reconciliare omnia in ipsum, pacificans per sanguinem crucis ejus, sive quæ in terris, sive quæ in cælis sunt.
21. Et vos cum essetis aliquando alienati, et inimici sensu in operibus malis:
22. nunc autem reconciliavit in corpore carnis ejus per mortem, exhibere vos sanctos, et immaculatos, et irreprehensibiles coram ipso:
23. si tamen permanetis in fide fundati, et stabiles, et immobiles a spe Evangelii, quod audistis, quod prædicatum est in universa creatura, quæ sub cælo est, cujus factus sum ego Paulus minister.
24. Qui nunc gaudeo in passionibus pro vobis, et adimpleo ea quæ desunt passionum Christi, in carne mea pro corpore ejus, quod est Ecclesia:
25. cujus factus sum ego minister secundum dispensationem Dei, quæ data est mihi in vos, ut impleam verbum Dei:
26. mysterium, quod absconditum fuit a sæculis, et generationibus, nunc autem manifestatum est sanctis ejus,
27. quibus voluit Deus notas facere divitias gloriæ sacramenti hujus in gentibus, quod est Christus, in vobis spes gloriæ,
28. quem nos annuntiamus, corripientes omnem hominem, et docentes omnem hominem, in omni sapientia, ut exhibeamus omnem hominem perfectum in Christo Jesu:
29. in quo et laboro, certando secundum operationem ejus, quam operatur in me in virtute.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 2632: Prayer of Petition ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2636: Prayer of Intercession ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2520: The Battle for Purity ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1250: Who can Receive Baptism? ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 517: The Mysteries of Christ's Life ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2839: "And Forgive Us Our Trespasses, as We Forgive Those Who Trespass AGAINST US" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 241: The Father ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 299: The Creator ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1701: Man: the Image of God ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2641: Prayer of Praise ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 142: Man's Response To God ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 291: The Creator ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 331: Heaven and Earth ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 753: The Church in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 792: The Church - People of God, Body of Christ, Temple of the Holy Spirit ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 504: "Conceived By the Power of the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 624: Jesus Christ Was Buried ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1042: Hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2305: Safeguarding Peace ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 618: Jesus Died Crucified ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1499: The Anointing of the Sick ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1508: Its Foundations in the Economy of Salvation ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 307: The Creator ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 772: The Church in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they are just one thing, and we should not complicate the matter.” — St. Joan of Arc, Trial testimony, 1431, 1431 (On this theme: verse 18)
- “To restore all things in Christ.” — St. Pius X, Motto, 1903 (On this theme: verse 20)
- “The more I am crucified, the more I rejoice.” — St. Bernadette Soubirous, Personal notes, Nevers, c. 1875 (On this theme: verse 24)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 15: That is, first begotten; as the Evangelist declares, the only begotten of his Father: hence, St. Chrisostom explains firstborn, not first created, as he was not created at all, but born of his Father before all ages; that is, coeval with the Father and with the Holy Ghost.
- Verse 24: There is no want in the sufferings of Christ in himself as head: but many sufferings are still wanting, or are still to come, in his body the church, and his members the faithful.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Wed, Sep 1, 2027 (computed): Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Colossians 1:1-8
- Thu, Sep 2, 2027 (computed): Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Colossians 1:9-14
- Fri, Sep 3, 2027 (computed): St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church — First Reading, Colossians 1:15-20
- Sat, Sep 4, 2027 (computed): Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Colossians 1:21-23

4 more dates through December 31, 2028, in the [liturgical calendar](https://blessbible.app/calendar/).

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).