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| Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus |
Latin Intensive Seminar: Veterum Sapientia
(Sunday, 4 August to Saturday, 10 August 2013)
(Sunday, 4 August to Saturday, 10 August 2013)
Veterum Sapientia is an intensive week-long ecclesiastical Latin program largely for, but not exclusive to, priests, religious, and seminarians. It will take place at Belmont Abbey College outside Charlotte, NC this August 4-10. It will offer a unique, guided exploration of the most important categories of writing that make up the Church’s Latin patrimony, with exercises ordered toward helping participants grow in their understanding of the mechanics of the language and internalize new vocabulary through active use. Classes and related activities (e.g. meals, games, walks) will be conducted in Latin and in a combination of Latin and English, as appropriate to participants’ level of experience. Plenary class sessions and some small-group work will be devoted to reading and discussion of texts representing the major genera of Latin writing in the life of the Church: scriptural Latin, patristic Latin, liturgical Latin, scholastic Latin, ecclesiastical (curial) Latin, and Gregorian chant (hymns). In other small-group sessions, participants will be guided through active exercises in speaking and in simple writing, based on material from these representative texts.
Participants will experience a series of plenary and small-group classes for a minimum total of six hours of instruction daily. Common lunches, dinners, and evening recreational activities will also be provided, offering opportunities for informal conversation in Latin to those who wish to participate. All class sessions, common meals and recreational activities will be conducted on the Belmont Abbey College campus; participants’ lodging will be off-campus (see area hotel information below).
We've been blessed with an extraordinary staff. Fr. Reginald Foster will be the head instructor. He was the chief Vatican Latinist for nearly 40 years and is arguably the best Latinist in the world (long time host of colloquial Summer Latin in the cloisters and parks of Rome and it's environs--sub arboribus). Assisting him we have his successor in the Vatican Latin office, Msgr. Dan Gallagher, Dr. Nancy Llewellyn of Wyoming Catholic College who's quite well-known in the spoken Latin circuit, and Dr. Gerald Malsbary at Belmont Abbey College.
Veterum Sapientia was an Apostolic Constitution signed on the high altar of St. Peter's by Blessed John XXIII. Its goal was to restore and revitalize the Latin language in the Church. Since it was signed a mere six months before Vatican II, it has been largely ignored for the past 50 years. Now more attention is being given to the document and this program hopes to respond to it.
Register now. Deadline for registration is June 1st.
--Fr. Jason Barone, Administrative Coordinator of Veterum Sapientia
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