diff --git a/maintner/gerrit.go b/maintner/gerrit.go
index c1f791b..fc19817 100644
--- a/maintner/gerrit.go
+++ b/maintner/gerrit.go
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 	"bufio"
 	"bytes"
 	"context"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
 	"net/url"
@@ -233,6 +234,30 @@
 
 	// GitHubIssueRefs are parsed references to GitHub issues.
 	GitHubIssueRefs []GitHubIssueRef
+
+	// Messages contains all of the messages for this CL, in sorted order.
+	Messages []*GerritMessage
+}
+
+// GerritMessage is a Gerrit reply that is attached to the CL as a whole, and
+// not to a file or line of a patch set.
+//
+// Maintner does very little parsing or formatting of a Message body. Messages
+// are stored the same way they are stored in the API.
+type GerritMessage struct {
+	// Version is the patch set version this message was sent on.
+	Version int32
+
+	// Message is the raw message contents from Gerrit (a subset
+	// of the raw git commit message), starting with "Patch Set
+	// nnnn".
+	Message string
+
+	// Date is when this message was stored (the commit time of
+	// the git commit).
+	Date time.Time
+
+	// TODO author id etc.
 }
 
 // References reports whether cl includes a commit message reference
@@ -297,7 +322,6 @@
 	if c.mutationLogger == nil {
 		panic("can't TrackGerrit in non-leader mode")
 	}
-
 	c.mu.Lock()
 	defer c.mu.Unlock()
 
@@ -340,9 +364,8 @@
 //     git push origin HEAD:refs/drafts/master
 var statuses = []string{"merged", "abandoned", "draft", "new"}
 
-// getGerritStatus takes a current and previous commit, and returns a Gerrit
-// status, or the empty string to indicate the status did not change between the
-// two commits.
+// getGerritStatus returns a Gerrit status for a commit, or the empty string to
+// indicate the commit did not show a status.
 //
 // getGerritStatus relies on the Gerrit code review convention of amending
 // the meta commit to include the current status of the CL. The Gerrit search
@@ -351,33 +374,90 @@
 // returns only "NEW", "DRAFT", "ABANDONED", "MERGED". Gerrit attaches "draft",
 // "abandoned", "new", and "merged" statuses to some meta commits; you may have
 // to search the current meta commit's parents to find the last good commit.
+func getGerritStatus(commit *GitCommit) string {
+	idx := strings.Index(commit.Msg, statusIndicator)
+	if idx == -1 {
+		return ""
+	}
+	off := idx + len(statusIndicator)
+	for _, status := range statuses {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(commit.Msg[off:], status) {
+			return status
+		}
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
+var errStopIteration = errors.New("stop iteration")
+var errTooManyParents = errors.New("maintner: too many commit parents")
+
+// foreachCommitParent walks a commit's parents, calling f for each commit until
+// an error is returned from f or a commit has no parent.
+//
+// foreachCommitParent returns errTooManyParents (and stops processing) if a commit
+// has more than one parent.
 //
 // Corpus.mu must be held.
-func (gp *GerritProject) getGerritStatus(currentMeta, oldMeta *GitCommit) string {
-	commit := currentMeta
+func (gp *GerritProject) foreachCommitParent(hash GitHash, f func(*GitCommit) error) error {
 	c := gp.gerrit.c
+	commit := c.gitCommit[hash]
 	for {
-		idx := strings.Index(commit.Msg, statusIndicator)
-		if idx > -1 {
-			off := idx + len(statusIndicator)
-			for _, status := range statuses {
-				if strings.HasPrefix(commit.Msg[off:], status) {
-					return status
-				}
-			}
+		if commit == nil {
+			return nil
 		}
-		if len(commit.Parents) == 0 {
-			return "new"
+		if err := f(commit); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if commit.Parents == nil || len(commit.Parents) == 0 {
+			return nil
+		}
+		if len(commit.Parents) > 1 {
+			return errTooManyParents
 		}
 		parentHash := commit.Parents[0].Hash // meta tree has no merge commits
 		commit = c.gitCommit[parentHash]
-		if commit == nil {
-			gp.logf("getGerritStatus: did not find parent commit %s", parentHash)
-			return "new"
+	}
+}
+
+// getGerritMessage parses a Gerrit comment from the given commit or returns nil
+// if there wasn't one.
+//
+// Corpus.mu must be held.
+func (gp *GerritProject) getGerritMessage(commit *GitCommit) *GerritMessage {
+	start := strings.Index(commit.Msg, "\nPatch Set ")
+	if start == -1 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	numStart := start + len("\nPatch Set ")
+	colon := strings.IndexByte(commit.Msg[numStart:], ':')
+	if colon == -1 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	version, err := strconv.ParseInt(commit.Msg[numStart:numStart+colon], 10, 32)
+	if err != nil {
+		gp.logf("unexpected patch set number in %s; err: %v", commit.Hash, err)
+		return nil
+	}
+	start++
+	v := commit.Msg[start:]
+	l := 0
+	for {
+		i := strings.IndexByte(v, '\n')
+		if i < 0 {
+			return nil
 		}
-		if oldMeta != nil && commit.Hash == oldMeta.Hash {
-			return ""
+		if strings.HasPrefix(v[:i], "Patch-set:") {
+			// two newlines before the Patch-set message
+			v = commit.Msg[start : start+l-2]
+			break
 		}
+		v = v[i+1:]
+		l = l + i + 1
+	}
+	return &GerritMessage{
+		Date:    commit.CommitTime,
+		Message: v,
+		Version: int32(version),
 	}
 }
 
@@ -420,12 +500,35 @@
 		if clv.Version == 0 {
 			oldMeta := cl.Meta
 			cl.Meta = gc
-			if status := gp.getGerritStatus(cl.Meta, oldMeta); status != "" {
-				cl.Status = status
+			foundStatus := ""
+			var messages []*GerritMessage
+			gp.foreachCommitParent(cl.Meta.Hash, func(gc *GitCommit) error {
+				if status := getGerritStatus(gc); status != "" && foundStatus == "" {
+					foundStatus = status
+				}
+				if message := gp.getGerritMessage(gc); message != nil {
+					// Walk from the newest commit backwards, so we need to
+					// insert all messages at the beginning of the array.
+					// TODO: store these in reverse order instead and avoid
+					// the quadratic inserting at the beginning.
+					messages = append(messages, nil)
+					copy(messages[1:], messages[:])
+					messages[0] = message
+				}
+				if oldMeta != nil && gc.Hash == oldMeta.Hash {
+					return errStopIteration
+				}
+				return nil
+			})
+			if foundStatus != "" {
+				cl.Status = foundStatus
+			} else if cl.Status == "" {
+				cl.Status = "new"
 			}
 			if cl.Created.IsZero() || gc.CommitTime.Before(cl.Created) {
 				cl.Created = gc.CommitTime
 			}
+			cl.Messages = append(cl.Messages, messages...)
 		} else {
 			cl.Commit = gc
 			cl.Version = clv.Version
diff --git a/maintner/gerrit_test.go b/maintner/gerrit_test.go
index 81b0ecd..180c519 100644
--- a/maintner/gerrit_test.go
+++ b/maintner/gerrit_test.go
@@ -4,7 +4,10 @@
 
 package maintner
 
-import "testing"
+import (
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
 
 var statusTests = []struct {
 	msg  string
@@ -36,17 +39,13 @@
 Subject: devapp: initial support for App Engine Flex
 Commit: 17839a9f284b473986f235ad2757a2b445d05068
 Tag: autogenerated:gerrit:newPatchSet
-Groups: 17839a9f284b473986f235ad2757a2b445d05068`, "new"},
+Groups: 17839a9f284b473986f235ad2757a2b445d05068`, ""},
 }
 
 func TestGetGerritStatus(t *testing.T) {
-	var c Corpus
-	c.EnableLeaderMode(new(dummyMutationLogger), "/fake/dir")
-	c.TrackGerrit("go.googlesource.com/build")
-	gp := c.gerrit.projects["go.googlesource.com/build"]
 	for _, tt := range statusTests {
 		gc := &GitCommit{Msg: tt.msg}
-		got := gp.getGerritStatus(gc, nil)
+		got := getGerritStatus(gc)
 		if got != tt.want {
 			t.Errorf("getGerritStatus msg:\n%s\ngot %s, want %s", tt.msg, got, tt.want)
 		}
@@ -85,3 +84,43 @@
 		t.Errorf("expected go-review.googlesource.com to return nil, got a project")
 	}
 }
+
+var messageTests = []struct {
+	in  string
+	out string
+}{
+	{`Update patch set 1
+
+Patch Set 1: Code-Review+2
+
+Just to confirm, "go test" will consider an empty test file to be passing?
+
+Patch-set: 1
+Reviewer: Quentin Smith <13020@62eb7196-b449-3ce5-99f1-c037f21e1705>
+Label: Code-Review=+2
+`, "Patch Set 1: Code-Review+2\n\nJust to confirm, \"go test\" will consider an empty test file to be passing?"},
+}
+
+func TestGetGerritMessage(t *testing.T) {
+	var c Corpus
+	c.EnableLeaderMode(new(dummyMutationLogger), "/fake/dir")
+	c.TrackGerrit("go.googlesource.com/build")
+	gp := c.gerrit.projects["go.googlesource.com/build"]
+	for _, tt := range messageTests {
+		gc := &GitCommit{
+			Msg:        tt.in,
+			CommitTime: time.Now().UTC(),
+		}
+		msg := gp.getGerritMessage(gc)
+		// just checking these get copied through appropriately
+		if msg.Version != 1 {
+			t.Errorf("getGerritMessage: want Version 1, got %d", msg.Version)
+		}
+		if msg.Date.IsZero() {
+			t.Errorf("getGerritMessage: expected Date to be non-zero, got zero")
+		}
+		if msg.Message != tt.out {
+			t.Errorf("getGerritMessage: want %q, got %q", tt.out, msg.Message)
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/maintner/maintpb/maintner.pb.go b/maintner/maintpb/maintner.pb.go
index 69b3e62..ce78efa 100644
--- a/maintner/maintpb/maintner.pb.go
+++ b/maintner/maintpb/maintner.pb.go
@@ -816,9 +816,6 @@
 	return false
 }
 
-// GerritMutation represents an individual Gerrit CL. The URL and Number must
-// always be present, to identify the CL. The other fields may or may not be
-// present.
 type GerritMutation struct {
 	// Project is the Gerrit server and project, without scheme (https implied) or
 	// trailing slash.
diff --git a/maintner/maintpb/maintner.proto b/maintner/maintpb/maintner.proto
index b7469ed..1c5858c 100644
--- a/maintner/maintpb/maintner.proto
+++ b/maintner/maintpb/maintner.proto
@@ -200,9 +200,6 @@
   bool   binary = 4;
 }
 
-// GerritMutation represents an individual Gerrit CL. The URL and Number must
-// always be present, to identify the CL. The other fields may or may not be
-// present.
 message GerritMutation {
   // Project is the Gerrit server and project, without scheme (https implied) or
   // trailing slash.