Attendee Information Page
We are excited to welcome you to the 12th annual Veterum Sapientia Summer Immersion Workshop this summer! You will be joining seminarians, clergy, and religious from around the country in learning from the top names in spoken Latin in the world!
We have prepared all the information you will need to arrive safely and come prepared! Check out the information below to find all your travel tips, arrival logistics, contact information, and a suggested packing list.
2025 VSW Theme: Jubilee Years
2025 VSW Theme: Jubilee Years
Every 25 years, the Church celebrates a holy year called a Jubilee, when Catholics are especially encouraged to make a pilgrimage to Rome. This practice, which is modeled on the “year of remission” of the Old Testament (Leviticus 25, 10) has a rich and fascinating history behind it, one which has brought many changes to the Eternal City. For the first Jubilee year edition of our annual Veterum Sapientia workshop, we will take the Jubilee itself as our theme, reading and discussing its Biblical foundations, its patristic and medieval interpreters, the history and theology of Christian pilgrimages, and the practice of indulgences. In addition to textual discussion around the theological and spiritual traditions surrounding the Jubilee, we shall study some of the great Christian monuments and artistic treasures which have been made in Rome for the Jubilee years.
When
- July 20-26, 2025
- Arriving: Sunday, July 20, 4-6pm
- Departing: Saturday, July 26, 10am-12pm
If you have any questions or concerns about arriving late or leaving early, please contact us.
Where
- Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat Center
- 7303 N. 112th Street
Waverly, NE 68462
Please take note of the new location this year when booking travel!
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. meals, games, walks) will be conducted in Latin appropriate to your level of comprehension and that of your fellow participants.
- All liturgies are optional
- Masses will occur in the morning at 7:30AM
- There are two chapels available for private masses. Priests, please bring your own linens.
- Vespers (or some other devotion) occurs each evening at 5:30pm, with dinner to follow.
Your Daily Experience
As a participant, you’ll work with your instructors in plenary and small-group class sessions, as well as having the opportunity to participate in games, skits, and every day activities in Latin.

Room & Board

Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat Center:
- The facility includes 50 individual guestrooms, each with a private bath and towels, a writing desk and recliner. All rooms include a bed and linens for overnight guests.
- Take a look HERE.
The cost of all meals is included in the tuition rate. We will try to accommodate students with dietary restrictions. If you did not note this on your registration form, please email [email protected].
- Toiletries
- Notepad: although keep in mind this is an oral method of learning
- Your favorite Latin Dictionary
- Snacks are allowed if you have particular preferences
- An extra blanket, if desired.
Faculty

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.

Mr. Marcus Porto
Magister - Introductory Latin
Magister Marcus holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College and a Latin Fluency Certificate from Academia Vivarium Novum, where he learned to speak Latin under Luigi Miraglia. He is currently a graduate student at Kentucky University, studying Latin under Terence Tunberg and Milena Minkova, and works as a classical languages’ instructor, Liberal Arts teacher, and editor at Instituto Hugo de São Vitor, Brazil.