Do you want to improve your command of Latin? Has it been a while since you studied Latin and you’d like to reactivate your knowledge? Would you like greater confidence in pronouncing Latin prayers? Our week-long workshops are for Catholics who want to add a living dimension to their study of Latin. Our workshop series responds to St John XXIII’s call to revitalize the Latin language in the Catholic Church, which he made in his 1962 Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia (English | Latin) and its Ordinationes (English | Latin)
Ab Initio & Vinculum Workshops
(open to all)
Dates
Monday afternoon, July 1 through
Sunday morning, July 7, 2024
Location
St. Bernard Abbey
Cullman, Alabama
Ab Initio, “from the beginning”, means what it says: a first experience of Latin. The only prerequisites are interest in learning and willingness to participate by listening and speaking. Even if you have never done a word of Latin before, our experienced teachers will take you through the first steps, not by memorizing words and endings, but by really speaking the language from day one. We won’t have you reading Cicero or St. Augustine by the end of the week, but we are confident that you will enjoy yourself and be excited to learn more! This workshop is also for those who have some prior knowledge of Latin, but have never previously used it as a spoken language, and for those who may not have used it for a while, but want to get back into the swing of things.
For those at an intermediate or advanced level, broadly defined as those who have had three or more years of Latin in high school or college, we offer Vinculum. In addition to the regular daily use that comes from an immersive learning experience, we will offer classroom exercises to reinforce and improve your mastery of the more important features of the language, and group discussions of original texts be conducted in Latin, led by one of the magistri. Taught by VSI faculty and carefully selected guests, Vinculum combines a week-long adventure in the Church’s Latin heritage with an intensive, immersive experience of the language itself.
If you are interested, but not sure whether you would be better off with Ab Initio or Vinculum, we’ll be glad to talk it over with you and help you decide.
Veterum Sapientia Workshop
(for Ecclesiastics)
Dates
Sunday afternoon, July 21 through
Saturday morning, July 27, 2024
Location
St. Joseph's College Seminary
Mt. Holly, North Carolina
The Veterum Sapientia Workshop is open to all Catholic priests, deacons, seminarians, and both male and female religious. It is advised that they have at least two semesters of college-level Latin.
People who will benefit from participation in Veterum Sapientia Workshop include:
- Priests, men and women religious, deacons, and seminarians who wish to gain greater mastery of the Catholic Church’s language. Doing so will enrich understanding both of Sacred Scripture and of the Latin liturgy, while working toward command of the common language we share with the Saints and teachers of our Church.
- Priests who have had some formal instruction in Latin and want to celebrate Latin liturgies with greater confidence will benefit from abundant guided practice in speaking.
- Religious who have been asked to start teaching Latin will increase their knowledge of the subject and gain speaking experience which is immensely valuable as a teaching tool.
- Deacons and seminarians who have already done some Latin in their seminaries but want to review, consolidate, and build on their knowledge will be able to do so in an encouraging and energizing environment.
- Those who do not have the requisite Latin may benefit from participating in our Ab Initio Workshop.
