Classics at AMU @classics-avemaria - Tumblr Blog

A picnic with Vergil

On the day before final exams commenced, Ave Maria’s Classics majors, minors, and interested freshmen gathered under the pavilion at South Park to eat ribs, to enjoy the beautiful weather, and to listen to recitations from Vergil’s Aeneid. Maxwell Wood, Noelle McMahon, Elise Larres, and Kathleen Kelly shared around 20 lines each from various passages in the first four books. Their memorizations were one of the assignments for a 2 credit course they took during Fall 2017 in which they read the entirety of the first two books of the Aeneid. Our thanks to them and to everyone who came out!

Pictured here are Ave Maria University’s participants in the 2017-8 CAMWS Latin translation competition. From left to right: Maxwell Wood, Elise Larres, Teresa Henderson, Peter Liffrig, Jean Carlos Vicente, and Kathleen Kelly. We’ve had tremendous success in the past and we’re hoping for great results again this year.

My thanks to the students of GREK 103 / THEO 513, the first part of Ave Maria University’s introduction to ancient Greek, for a wonderful semester. Not everyone made it into the shot, but seen here are (from left to right): Marcus Peter, Andrew Kuenstle, Dan Waldow, John Coffey, Casey Knox, and Jean Carlos Vicente. Inspired by some culinary details contained in the chapter of Athenaze which we were reading, Mr. Coffey gifted the class with beverages and sausages for our last meeting.

Ave Maria University’s Classics students participated in a Certamen competition hosted by Florida State University on October 14, 2017. This was a fantastic event that brought together talented undergraduates in teams of 4-5 students from FSU, the New College of Florida, the University of Florida, and AMU. Certamen is a quiz bowl or academic bowl style competition that features questions about the Classical world. The students were asked questions about Homer, Vergil, Catullus, and Petronius, about Latin grammar, ancient geography, Roman history, and mythology.

My congratulations to our participants (from left to right above): Peter Liffrig, Maxwell Wood, Patrick Maslak, and Matthew Peterson. They’re seen during their round against the University of Florida with the host, Dr. James Sickinger of FSU, and two of his graduate students who assisted at the event. Our students are grateful to the Classics Department of Florida State University, AMU’s Office of Academic Affairs, and AMU’s Student Government Association, all of whom contributed to defray the costs of the trip to Tallahassee.

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Follow the link above to see photos from the Department of Classics & Early Christian Literature’s trip to Rome during June 2017. For information about the trip planned for June 2018, please click here.

Euge! CAMWS translation contest perfect score

I am delighted to report that one of Ave Maria University’s Classics majors, Kathleen Kelly, was one of two individuals to earn a perfect score on the advanced level of the CAMWS Latin translation contest in 2017. 40 different schools in 18 different states (and two schools in Canada) participated in the contest. There were 282 participants at the intermediate level and 189 at the advanced level. The full results are here.

Besides the honor of this achievement, Kathleen will also receive a $250 cash prize. Well done, Kathleen!

I had tremendous fun this semester with this group of talented students. The course was called Metaphysics in Latin and it was designed for those students needing to fulfill the core requirement in Metaphysics, which is a Philosophy course, but who had the ability to read philosophical texts in the original Latin. Besides more contemporary authors writing in English such as Edward Feser, Alvin Plantinga, and Marilyn Adams, we read from Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura, Cicero’s De Natura Deorum, Augustine’s De Libero Arbitrio, Anselm’s Proslogion, and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. This group of students was motivated, philosophically perceptive, and able to read Latin brilliantly, often at sight. My thanks to them for a great semester!

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Classics Senior Presentations

Just before Christmas break, two seniors majoring in Classics, Kate Van de Loo and Catie Crnkovich, gave their senior presentations.

Kate Van de Loo read and defended her paper “Portae Monasterii Casinesis,” which takes a look at the central set of doors to the main church at the abbey of Monte Cassino. Miss Van de Loo’s paper offers a history of the development, installation, and reassembly of the doors over time; and also a commentary on the door’s dedicatory inscriptions. Through her treatment of the doors, Van de Loo offers a glimpse into the life and history of the abbey of Monte Cassino.

Catie Crnkovich followed with her paper, “Mutatis Modis Cantica: What Was Plautus Thinking? How a Close Look at Menaechmi Can Shed Light on the Genius behind Plautine Cantica.” In her paper, Miss Crnkovich offers a close reading, including scansion and translation, of several key passages of the cantica in Plautus’ comedy, Menaechmi. Through her reading and research, Crnkovich makes the case that the cantica, far from being merely engaging interludes or opportunities for voice rest, are integral to the development of the play’s characters and evidence of Plautus’ theatrical genius.

After their graduation in May, both Van de Loo and Crnkovich intend to continue their study and love of Latin by entering graduate programs in classics.

Below: Catie (left) and Kate (right) pose for a photo after their presentations with professors from the AMU Classics Department, from left to right, Drs. Ritter, Dinan and Yarbrough.

The Department of Classics & Early Christian Literature invites all students who have completed three semesters of Latin to join Dr. Yarbrough on an extraordinary trip to the heart of the Catholic Church in the eternal city of Rome. With the Catholic churches and the pagan ruins of Rome as your classroom, the Latin language comes alive as you read the original words of Vergil and Cicero, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. You will cross the Tiber, walk the Via Appia, explore the catacombs, stand inside the Colosseum, and pray before St. Peter’s bones. For information about this summer’s trip, please visit here.

Our many thanks to Mr. Maxwell Wood, who attended the trip as a rising junior and Classics major in Summer 2016, for his work in filming and producing this video.

amuacademics

Meet Ed Heffernan of the Class of 2011

“Even though I felt that the pressure of academics at Ave was sometimes back-breaking, it was an essential part of my success in graduate school. There were no projects at the graduate level that I had not first experienced at Ave.”

Those are the vivid words Edward F. Heffernan, who graduated from Ave Maria University in 2011 and went on to earn an M.A. in Latin Pedagogy from the University of Arizona, uses to explain how his education at AMU prepared him for postgraduate work.

Keep reading

#Classics #alumni #Ave Maria University #Latin

AMU in Rome (June 2016)

I’m happy to report that Ave Maria University’s study trip to Rome (June 4-14, 2016) was a great success. Nine of the university’s best students, including one of this year’s valedictorians, spent ten days in the Eternal City reading Latin texts of every genre and era while surrounded by the sites in which and about which these texts were written.

We are very grateful to Fr. Pius Pietrzyk, OP at San Clemente and Fr. Vivian Boland, OP at Santa Sabina who gave generously of their time in showing us the beauty of those churches. It was a pleasure to make their acquaintance and I hope we will cross paths in the future. We also owe thanks to Marco Bachmann, who gave us a tour of the barracks of the Swiss Guard and to Mr. Gianfranco, who took us all over the Vatican city and to whom no door was closed.

This year’s trip included two papal liturgies in the piazza outside of St. Peter’s Basilica, one of which was a Mass of canonization, the Holy Father’s Wednesday general audience, and a pontifical solemn high Mass celebrated by Archbishop Guido Pozzo at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the church’s dedication.

You’ll find here an album of my photographs from the trip.

#Ave Maria University #Latin #study #Rome #Roma #Italy #Italia #students #Catholic

“Sermo Latinus Hodiernus” is a course that Dr. Bradley Ritter and I have taught off and on for the past several years. In the past, the curriculum has focused on practicing the oral and aural use of Latin while the students learn classical Latin vocabulary for the things of everyday life such as for food, study, and recreation. This year I decided to vary the material by using Lhomond’s Epitome Historiae Sacrae in the edition produced by Luigi Miraglia that also includes the life of Christ. The plan was to read three paragraphs per session, explain and discuss them in Latin, and then to examine paintings of the scenes we had read about while asking questions in Latin about them.

The group above made it with me through the end of the spring semester, which I thought deserved a photo. My thanks to these fine students for a fun year! From left to right: Carolina Enzler, Rachel Hughes, Liam Kelly, Brenda Monnekulame, Andrew Hicks, Joseph Pakaluk, Dr. Joseph Yarbrough, Kate Van de Loo, Kathleen Kelly, Catie Crnkovich.

#Ave Maria University #Latin #Classics

CAMWS translation contest results

I am very happy to announce that from among those who participated in the CAMWS Latin translation contest this year, Kathleen Kelly, Catherine Crnkovich, and Colleen Kilpatrick received certificates of commendation (top 23%) for their intermediate level translations of Latin prose. In the advanced contest, which featured a passage of Latin verse, Andrew Hicks received a certificate of commendation (top 22%). Well done to all!

#classics #latin #Ave Maria University #translation #contest

These fine students of the Classics at Ave Maria University gathered this morning to participate in CAMWS’ annual Latin translation contest. Two of our students were recognized for their translations last year and I’m looking forward to great success this year! From left to right: Monica Bushling, Catie Crnkovich, Fiona Littleton, Kate Van de Loo, Kathleen Kelly, Colleen Kilpatrick, Rachel Hughes, and Andrew Hicks.

#CAMWS #classics #latin #translation contest #photo

Colleen Kilpatrick, a senior majoring in Music, and Katie Walton, a senior majoring in Music and Classics, gifted our class (LATN 415: The Eucharist in Latin) with two in-class performances of the Lauda, Sion, Salvatorem, the sequence for the Mass of Corpus Christi written by St. Thomas Aquinas. It is justly lauded as the finest concise expression of the doctrine of the Catholic Church concerning the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. In addition to St. Thomas Aquinas' hymns, our class has read from the Vulgate, excerpts from a Latin translation of St. Justin Martyr's Apology, the Canon of the Mass, excerpts from St. Ambrose's On the Sacraments, the Oath of Berengarius, excerpts from Odo of Cambrai's Exposition of the Mass, and excerpts from the Summa Theologiae.

How fine it was to have our exploration of the Latin text of the Lauda, Sion, Salvatorem prefaced by such beautiful music. (Please excuse the humble microphone quality of the iPhone 6s.)

#chant #music #Lauda Sion Salvatorem #Thomas Aquinas #St. Thomas Aquinas #Ave Maria University #Latin #Classics #eucharist #Corpus Christi

From Classics major to Theology graduate school

One of AMU Class of 2015′s co-valedictorians and Classics majors, Mr. Cody David, was recently back in town and was so good as to meet for a chat with his former professors. It sounds like Cody is doing excellently in graduate school at the University of Notre Dame. Cody is studying for a Master’s degree in Theology with the intention of pursuing a Ph.D. afterwards.

Cody was eager to share his thoughts about the ways in which a major in Classics & Early Christian Literature impressed the graduate application committee and prepared him for graduate course work. I share below his words and extend our thanks!

My major in Classics was the best preparation I could have had for graduate school, both in terms of getting in and the ability to do the work when I got here. I would say that it is essential for anybody considering graduate school in the humanities to major in Classics. A Classics major is an objective way for graduate programs to gauge competence and scholarly ability. In fact, I was told that the reason I got into the program that I did was because of my extensive language work. It will make you stand out on an application. Beyond just getting in, it will prepare you to do good work when you arrive. It will instill study habits that will help in all classes, regardless of the discipline. Also, getting your Classics major at Ave will ensure that you have the ability to excel in all of your language classes, which are so important in every area. Speaking from experience, I feel just as prepared as any of my classmates, many of whom have been studying the languages years more than I have, to do advanced language coursework. This is because of the way the professors taught me to study and approach texts. They do a great job. On a side note, the professors are all great people, so have fun getting to know them!

#alumni #classics #Ave Maria University #graduate school

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A Prayer of St. Albert, Translated by Sr. Albert Marie

In 2001, Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, OP, arrived at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan to begin her undergraduate study of Classical Languages and Early Christian Literature. She excelled academically, graduating summa cum laude in 2005.

After graduation, she entered the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sr. Albert Marie spent two years (2008-2010) completing coursework in Secondary Education at Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti, MI). In 2010, she returned to Ave Maria—now University—located at its permanent campus in Southwest Florida. Sr. Albert Marie completed an M.A. in Theology summa cum laude in 2011. Her Master’s thesis included an introduction to and translation of St. Jerome’s Commentary on Nahum; a publication of her thesis is forthcoming in a two-volume series of Jerome’s commentaries on the Minor Prophets, edited by Thomas Scheck for Intervarsity Press’ Ancient Christian Text series.

Sr. Albert Marie went on to earn her Ph.D. in Systematic Theology with a minor in Moral Theology from Ave Maria University in 2014. Her doctoral dissertation was a translation of and commentary on Albert the Great’s work, De Corpore Domini. “Since St. Albert is my patron saint,” she explained, “I wanted to do something that would explore his theology a bit more. De Corpore Domini is very devotional, as well as having the scholastic aspect. … I found it enriching to my Dominican vocation; part of the life of a Dominican is the study of the truth.”

[Above: Sr. Albert Marie presents “The Joy of Christ in Albert the Great’s De Corpore Domini” at the “Wisdom and the Renewal of Theology Conference” (Ave Maria University, Feb 7, 2015).]

In a couple of editions of De Corpore Domini, a prayer attributed to St. Albert is included at the end. The prayer, Sr. Albert Marie explained, “reflects the theology of the work in its careful meditation on the fullness of Christ who in the sacrament gives his body, blood, soul, spirit and divinity, and the way in which it connects various effects and graces of the sacrament to these various parts. It also reflects the theology of the work in its connection of the union of love given in the sacrament to the Father’s union with the Son, as expressed in John 14, an idea which Albert calls the ‘golden chain.’”

Below is the text of Sr. Albert Marie’s translation of this prayer of Albert the Great.

Prayer of St. Albert

Almighty eternal God, Only-begotten Son of God, who took up body and blood and a human soul and spirit from among us and from us and for our sake, and suitably said through the holy prophet Jeremiah that you were made holy from the womb, saying that the souls of the priests would be filled with richness and your people would abound in good things, by this sacrament of your body fill our souls with good things and fulfill our desires and grant that all of your truth, virtue, unity, love, purity, piety, devotion and holiness be made active in us, so that as you are in the Father and the Father is in you, you may be in us through the pure nature of your action, so that in you through your body and soul we may maintain integrity of spirit, made one body with you by your sacred body to share the saving communion of the sacrament and sweet participation in you, filled with your most sacred blood to completely sprinkle and cleanse our innermost being; redeemed by the price of salvation, your sacred soul, to attain true reconciliation with the Father and the Holy Spirit and redemption from guilt, and made to live by your sacred spirit to restore all the spiritual vitality we had lost and to illuminate our senses, filled with grace by your sacred divinity to attain maturity in every virtue, and receiving grace for grace from your fullness from the Eucharist, which is the vessel of every grace, make us share in the graces which your holy Apostles and disciples had communion when they received this sacrament from your hand…

Albert the Great’s De Corpore Domini has never been published in English translation before. Sr. Albert Marie’s translation and commentary is currently in process for publication with The Catholic University of America Press.

Sr. Albert Marie currently lives in Ave Maria, FL in a house with five of her fellow Dominican sisters. She is Instructor of Theology and Research Fellow at Ave Maria University, where she teaches classes on Sacred Doctrine, the Sacraments, and Catherine of Siena’s Dialogue and the Summa. “It’s really been a joy to move on from studying to teaching,” she concluded, “and to share the truth about Christ.”

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