Dates
Sunday afternoon, July 21 through
Saturday morning, July 27, 2024
Location
St. Joseph College Seminary
Mt. Holly, North Carolina
Overview
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? Veterum Sapientia is a week-long workshop for Catholic priests, religious (both male and female), deacons, and seminarians who want to add a living dimension to their study of Latin. Begun in 2013 at Belmont Abbey College, this workshop has been hosted by the Diocese of Charlotte’s new St. Joseph College Seminary since 2019. Our workshop series seeks to respond 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).
Taught by seminary faculty assisted by recent alumni/advanced seminarian students and carefully selected guests, Veterum Sapientia combines a week-long adventure in the Church’s Latin heritage with an intensive, immersive experience of the language itself.
When
- July 21-27, 2024
- Arriving: Sunday, July 21, 4-6pm
- Departing: Saturday, July 27, 10am-12pm
If you have any questions or concerns about arriving late or leaving early, please contact us.
Where
- Saint Joseph College Seminary
- 22 Arctus Avenue in Mt Holly
North Carolina, 28120
The main campus of our neighboring partner institution, Belmont Abbey College, is well visible from exit 26 on southbound Interstate 85, about fifteen minutes distant from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT).
Eligibility
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 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.
Note: The above is intended to provide typical examples, but is not an exhaustive list. Potential applicants whose experience does not fit any of the categories above are still encouraged to apply. Such applications will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
A typical day will take you through intensive class work in the morning, Mass, a lunch break offering time for rest and meditation, an afternoon session combining language with games and physical activity, followed by a Rosary or Vespers, and after-dinner time for fellowship. Your classroom sessions will be immersive, featuring engaging, supportive exercises in speaking, reading, and writing. These will help you grow in understanding the mechanics of the language and internalize new vocabulary by using it.
Classes and instructional activities (e.g. meals, games, walks) will be conducted in Latin appropriate to your level of comprehension and that of your fellow participants.
The goal of the Veterum Sapientia program is to help participants develop their understanding of Latin and their ability to use it. Our host institution, St. Joseph College Seminary of Charlotte, will offer us spiritual support in harmony with this goal, viz. daily Mass, the Divine Office, the Rosary and opportunities for Adoration.
Your Daily Experience
As a participant, you’ll work with your instructors in plenary and small-group class sessions for a minimum of six and a maximum of eight classroom hours each day.
Room & Board
Clergy and Male Religious
Male participants will be housed directly at SJCS, which is included in the cost of the workshop.
Female Religious
Participating female religious will be housed nearby on the campus of Belmont Abbey College, and we will be glad to assist with shuttle to the program. During the registration process you will be given directions on making the necessary arrangements. The cost of this lodging is also included already in the cost of the workshop.
Other Options
Participants who prefer hotel or vacation rental accommodations may book rooms for themselves at nearby hotels or use Air B&B or equivalents. You will need your own car to go back and forth to the seminary. Hotel accommodations are not included in the workshop fee and must be paid for separately by participants who choose them.
The Belmont Hampton Inn, directly across from the Belmont Abbey College campus (about two miles from St. Joseph College Seminary), offers a discounted Belmont Abbey College rate of $129/night, inclusive of internet and breakfast. You MUST specifically ask for the “BAC rate” when you make your reservation to get the discount.
Meals will be taken communally at St. Joseph’s College Seminary. The cost of all meals is included in the tuition rate (see below), including beer and wine. We will try to accommodate students with dietary restrictions. You will have the opportunity to explain any such restrictions in a form which you will receive after registering.
VSI is committed to making learning the Language of the Church as widely available as possible. To that end we make every effort to keep our tuition and fees low. Here is the breakdown:
- Tuition, Room & Board: $1100 (refundable according to the schedule below, financial aid applies)
- $300 non-refundable deposit due upon registration
- BALANCE OWED BEFORE JULY 15th, 2024.
Each student is responsible for their own travel arrangements and expenses to and from the workshop. There may, however, be a limited shuttle service to and from the airport.
Applicants from the same community, diocese, school, or family are eligible for a 10% discount off tuition & board. (Examples: two or more priests from the same parish; two or more religious in the same community; two or more seminarians from the same seminary, etc.) This discount will be applied by VSI staff once two or more qualifying students are registered.
VSI offers a limited number of privately-funded scholarships. After please email [email protected] for more information.
Faculty
Fr. Jason Barone
Co-Founder, Veterum Sapientia Institute
Fr Barone is a priest for the Diocese of Charlotte and currently serving in parochial ministry in Sapphire and Highlands, NC. After completing seminary studies at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Denton, NE and Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, MD, he was ordained to the sacred priesthood in June of 2012. In his eight years of priestly ministry, he served in parishes, schools, the vocations office, and at St. Joseph’s College Seminary. In 2013, he began organizing the annual Veterum Sapientia conference. He is a co-founder of the Veterum Sapientia Institute.
Dr. Nancy Llewellyn, PhD (UCLA)
Co-Founder, Veterum Sapientia Institute
Magistra - Introductory Latin
Magistra Annula is Associate Professor of Latin at Belmont Abbey College, coming to North Carolina after a decade at Wyoming Catholic College. She teaches Latin at the Charlotte Diocese’s new St. Joseph College Seminary in addition to her work at Belmont. Earlier in her career she studied with Fr. Reginald Foster and at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. Returning to her native California, Nancy founded SALVI in 1997 and served on its board until 2019, directing SALVI workshops (Rusticationes) around the country and abroad. She holds her PhD (2006) from UCLA.
Dr. John Pepino, PhD
Academic Dean
Magister
Dr. Pepino teaches Latin and Greek at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, the seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) in Nebraska, USA. He also teaches online Latin courses using Hans Orberg’s Lingua Latina series. His own bilingual background (French and English) and boyhood in multilingual Europe predisposed him to a natural, oral/aural approach to Latin. His interests also include the decline of the living Latin culture in the Western Church as well as the means the Holy See advocates to recover it.
Gregory DiPippo
Director of Academic Development
Magister - Introductory Latin
Magister Gregorius was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, where he attended a high school which offered an excellent Latin program. He attended McGill University in Montreal, where he studied Classical Languages and Literature, and the Augustinian Patristic Institute in Rome, where he studied the Fathers of the Church. For 23 years, he worked as a tour guide in Rome, and for the last 15 years, he has been a regular contributor (and for 10 years editor) to the New Liturgical Movement website.
Fr. Dylan Schrader, PhD (CUA)
Magister - Scholastic Theology
Pater Pelagius is a priest of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, ordained in 2010. He holds a PhD in systematic theology from the Catholic University of America and is the translator of several Scholastic works, including On the Motive of the Incarnation, the first volume in CUA’s Early Modern Catholic Sources series, and Book 2 of Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences, edited by the Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine. Fr. Schrader is the author of The Shortcut to Scholastic Latin, published by the Paideia Institute Press. He has attended every Veterum Sapientia conference since its inception.
