The Scriptorium
Narrate
Volunteer to narrate a Father. The library wants many voices — yours, if you have the room for it.
Orthovox started as one voice but the plan was always to open the library up. The Fathers were never a one-man project; they were a thousand-year chorus of bishops, monks, martyrs, and scholars passing texts across basilicas and continents. The modern form shouldn't be any different.
Every title in our queue is drawn from a confirmed public-domain translation. Most have never been recorded as audiobooks. Several — like the full Catechetical Lectures of Cyril of Jerusalem, or the Seven Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch — have been waiting for a voice for fifteen hundred years. We give every finished title away for free. Patrons fund what volunteers can't.
If you read aloud well, have a quiet room, and want to give your voice to a book that has outlasted empires: pick a title from the list below and sign up. We'll send you the prepared manuscript, a pronunciation kit for the Greek and Latin, and a short checklist. No commitment until you send us the first five minutes.
Open for Narration
Books the Library Wants
Every title below is drawn from a confirmed public-domain translation. Click Claim → on any open book — it opens an email to Tim with the title pre-filled. We'll reply with the prepared manuscript and the narration kit.
Apostolic Fathers
Greek Apologists
Greek Fathers (3rd–4th c.)
Golden-Mouthed & Later
Before You Record
The Quality Bar
A short list. Nothing here is expensive or rare, but all of it is necessary.
- A quiet room
- Closed door, no HVAC, no laptop fan. A closet with clothes on three sides works as a vocal booth. Record in the same room, same time of day, for a whole title.
- A decent microphone
- USB condenser ($80–150: Audio-Technica AT2020USB+, Samson Q2U) is fine. Your phone is not. Keep 6–8 inches of distance; use a pop filter.
- A slow pace
- Patristic prose is dense. Read slower than feels natural. 130–150 words per minute is the audiobook sweet spot. Pause between paragraphs.
- A single take where possible
- Edit out coughs and flubs, but resist splicing together multiple retakes of the same sentence — the ear hears the join. Re-do the whole paragraph instead.
- A read-through first
- Before hitting record, read the chapter out loud once. Mark every word you don't know how to pronounce. Look them up. Don't wing Greek.
- Submit in WAV or 192kbps+ MP3
- We re-master at our end for consistency across the library. Send us the highest-quality file you can.
Don't see a title that fits?
Email Tim directly with the public-domain title you'd like to narrate. If it's a good fit, we'll get the manuscript prepared and send you the narration kit. No commitment until you send the first five minutes.
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