Currícula Académica
Academic Programs
To sign up for classes, new students will need to submit an admissions application (found on the admissions page). Returning students can either sign themselves up for classes on Populi or email the registrar.
All of these courses can be taken either for personal interest (i.e., not as part of the diploma programs) or for one of our diploma programs, which are Vatican approved and cosponsored by the Pontifical Institute for Higher Latin at the Salesianum in Rome.
2022-2023: Spring Semester Courses
Monday, January 16 - Friday, May 19, 2023
Please Contact Us!
The Admissions Office is only a phone call or an email away!
Admissions Email:
admissions@veterumsapientia.org
Admissions Phone:
+1 (828) 468-8099
Level One: Latin Language
- Zachary Thomas – W/F, 5:30-6:20 p.m. US Eastern Time
- Anthony Thomas – M/W, 2:00-2:50 p.m. US Eastern Time
- Tod Post – T/Th, 6:15-7:05 p.m. US Eastern Time
- Marcus Porto – M/W, 12:00-12:50 p.m. US Eastern Time
This course will consist primarily of guided reading and guided practice in speaking and listening centered around Hans Ørberg’s famous introductory textbook Lingua Latina per se Illustrata: Familia Romana, by active-Latin instructors the world over. These sessions will prepare you, the student, to complete other exercises online which will fill out the learning experience and reinforce what you have learned. We will complete chapters 1-15 of the textbook. At the end of this experience, you should be able to sustain your part of a simple conversation in Latin, and write a simple Latin paragraph, about the content of the textbook or about similar topics using the same vocabulary and structures (which also appear very frequently in liturgical and Scriptural Latin).
- Dr. Nancy Llewellyn – M/W, 7:00-7:50 p.m. US Eastern Time
- Jenni Glaser – T/Th, 5:00-5:50 p.m. US Eastern Time
- Marcus Porto – T/Th, 12:00-12:50 p.m. US Eastern Time
This course will consist primarily of guided reading and guided practice in speaking and listening centered around Hans Ørberg’s famous introductory textbook Lingua Latina per se Illustrata: Familia Romana, by active-Latin instructors the world over. These sessions will prepare you, the student, to complete other exercises online which will fill out the learning experience and reinforce what you have learned. We will complete chapters 16-26 of the textbook. At the end of this experience, you should be able to sustain your part of a simple conversation in Latin, and write a simple Latin paragraph, about the content of the textbook or about similar topics using the same vocabulary and structures (which also appear very frequently in liturgical and Scriptural Latin).
- Gregory DiPippo – M/W, 7:00-7:50 p.m. US Eastern Time
- Sean Pilcher – T/Th, 5:00-5:50 p.m. US Eastern Time
This course will consist primarily of guided reading and guided practice in speaking and listening centered around Hans Ørberg’s famous introductory textbook Lingua Latina per se Illustrata: Familia Romana, by active-Latin instructors the world over. These sessions will prepare you, the student, to complete other exercises online which will fill out the learning experience and reinforce what you have learned. We will complete chapters 27-35 of the textbook. At the end of this experience, you should be able to sustain your part of a simple conversation in Latin, and write a simple Latin paragraph, about the content of the textbook or about similar topics using the same vocabulary and structures (which also appear very frequently in liturgical and Scriptural Latin).
- Sean Pilcher – M/F, 5:00-5:50 p.m. US Eastern Time
Writing is a uniquely powerful tool for fixing knowledge in memory. This course will take you through a series of guided practice sessions in writing Latin. You will quickly review noun and verb forms, then produce Latin of your own, featuring the most important syntactic features of the language. Active exercises will help you internalize the mechanics of indirect discourse, purpose and result clauses, etc. Original writing in Latin, plus translation exercises into Latin from English, will make up the bulk of class assignments. This course is introductory, suitable for students who have studied Latin grammar but never taken a Latin prose composition class before.
Verba volant, scripta manent! Quicumque studeat grammaticam Latinam scribendo recensere, sua deinde propria scripta elaborare, has scholas participet, quo firmius elementa praecipua syntaxis Latinae mandet atque condat memoriae. Oratio obliqua, formulae necessitatis, elementa finalia et consecutiva, cetera recensebuntur, nec deerunt exercitia vertendi ex Anglico in Latinum sermonem. Tirones in arte scribendi, dummodo elementa grammatica sat bene perspecta habeant, imprimis ad scholas invitantur.
- Dr. Nancy Llewellyn – M/W, 8:10-9:00 p.m. US Eastern Time
Level Two: Classical Latin Texts (Ecclesiastical Latin Pronunciation)
Poetry
Students will read Book I of Virgil’s Aeneid in which they will encounter and then discuss, in Latin and in English, the central themes of the epic: pietas, fate, suffering, leadership. In addition to reading the Latin text itself, students will write summaries in Latin of assigned passages to develop their linguistic skills.
Primus Liber Aeneidos, a Vergilio scripti, a discipulis legetur atque tractabitur. Sententiae maximi momenti–de pietate, fato, passione, ducatu–Latine et Anglice disserentur. Carmen non solum legetur, summaria quorundam versuum sed etiam Latine scribentur ut facultates linguae augeantur.
Prose
- Tod Post – Mondays, 6:15-7:05 p.m. US Eastern Time
Level Four: Dogmatic Theology
- Fr. Dylan Schrader, PhD – Tuesdays, 5:00-5:50 p.m. US Eastern Time
We read approved authors from the great tradition of dogmatic manualists and discuss the key passages, structure, style, and highlights of their works.
Auctores probati e magno Manualistarum in re dogmatica agmine leguntur, eorumque operum loci, compagines, stilus, fastigia tractantur.
Personal Interest Courses (Credits not applied to DTLE or DLE)
- Anthony Thomas – Tuesdays, 8:45-9:35 p.m. US Eastern Time
If you want to learn Church Latin, VSI has a program for you!
Diplomas in Ecclesiastical Latin
No prior Latin? No problem!
Personal Interest Online Courses
Latin Immersion Workshops
Kitchen Table Latin (Tutoring)
Why Latin?
1. Ultimately, the Church wills the use of Latin, as Pope Saint John XXIII particularly expressed.
2. Latin is our collective birthright. All families are based on shared parentage and shared language. Latin is the language of the Catholic family, and as such, it enables human fraternity within the Church.
3. Latin is the language of the universal, of inclusion and of equality among people – regardless of national origin or socioeconomic status.
4. No one can understand Catholic theology deeply without Latin. Two thousand years of Catholic theologians articulated the Faith in and through Latin, creating a Latin technical vocabulary still in everyday use throughout the whole Church.
Why Now?
1. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people, including many homeschoolers, turned to distance-learning to learn new skills. Many also turned to mobile language-learning apps for the first time (People flocked to language apps during the pandemic – but how much can they actually teach you? | Shelley Hepworth | The Guardian and How learning a new language can help during the COVID pandemic | Berlitz).
2. This year VSI is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its namesake document, Veterum Sapientia – an Apostolic Constitution issued by Pope John XXIII (the father of Vatican II, which modernized the Church’s liturgy) to promote the significance of Latin for the Church.
3. This month, the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education approved VSI’s diploma program. Vatican certification further underscores the ongoing importance of Latin training for the Church at all levels.
Why VSI?
1. Completion of the VSI DLE program will fulfill the Latin requirements for clergy established by the Church.
2. VSI is officially accredited through the Vatican’s Pontifical Institute for Higher Latin (PIAL) housed at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome.
3. Our instructors have proven track records of effectiveness teaching both clergy and laity.
4. We offer online as well as in-person teaching, serving the growing need for distance learning.
5. Our courses are affordable.
6. Our courses are lively and engaging.
7. We offer tailored and convenient courses meeting the needs of religious communities and busy parish priests.