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 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 23-29, 2023
Arriving: Sunday, July 23, 4-6pm
Departing: Saturday, July 29, 10am-12pm
If you have any questions or concerns about arriving late or leaving early, please contact us.
St. Joseph College Seminary is located at 22 Arctus Avenue in Belmont, North Carolina, 28120. The address may come up as 1212 Perfection Avenue on many maps and GPS systems. 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).
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:
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.
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. 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 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. meal preparation, meals, games, walks) will be conducted in Latin appropriate to your level of comprehension and that of your fellow participants. Meal preparation will be something we do together as a learning community in our seminary kitchen, directed by a Chief Cook who is also a Latin-speaker.
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 Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary and opportunities for Adoration.
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 Hewett studied linguistics, ancient and modern languages in Texas and various European countries before learning to speak Latin with Fr. Reginald Foster in Rome. He completed a License in Patristic Sciences at the Augustinianum Pontifical Patristics Institute and a joint doctorate in medieval philosophy (University of Salerno) and Patristic Sciences (Augustinianum). In 2010 he co-founded the Paideia Institute for Humanistic Study, which he served as Executive Director through January 2020. In 2015 he received the President’s Award for service to the field of Classics from the Society for Classical Studies. He now teaches Latin and Greek at the seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) in Bavaria, Germany and is delighted to volunteer as first President of the Veterum Sapientia Institute.
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.
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 13 years, he has been a regular contributor (and for 8 years editor) to the New Liturgical Movement website.
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.
A limited number of male participants may be able to be housed directly at SJCS for $25 per night ($150). Seminary rooms are available on a first-come first-served basis. Once their availability has been exhausted, male participants will have to make their own arrangements from the options below.
Participating female religious may be able to be housed nearby with the Belmont Sisters of Mercy. You will need your own car to go back and forth to the seminary. During the registration process you will be given directions on making the necessary arangements.
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 registration fee and must be paid for separately by participants who choose them.
Meals will be cooked communally and taken 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.
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. Priority is given to seminarians, but there are occasionally funds available for other applicants. After please email [email protected] for more information.
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