Aestiva Latinitas Romae

A friend of mine here in Rome decided there wasn't enough Latin being spoken in this town.

Well, who can argue with that? So he founded a new school.

The mornings are spent at the St. John's University campus reading poetry and prose and commenting on the texts in Latin; the afternoons are spent doing the same thing at various sites of literary or archaeological significance. If you vacationed in Italy this June, you might have seen us standing around the Ara Pacis on a scorcher, offering competing Latin orations on the pax Augustana.

...

We descended into the Sybil's cave at Cumae to reel off the pertinent hundred lines of Virgil. We drew stares in the Forum as we declaimed latine (adv.: "in Latin") on the various points of interest. (One elderly Italian gentleman, several sheets to the wind, stuck with us for some time, offering applause and exclamations of "bravi" whenever he thought appropriate.) We stooped into the Catacombs of Priscilla or the bowels of the Basilica San Clemente, where a troupe of friendly Bulgarians listened to our Latinisms on the subject of Saint Cyril.

Sign up.



~

Learn Latin: it's practical

Latin is still the functioning lingua franca of the Church. I've been in several situations lately where I am in a room full of people with whom the only possible common language we have is Latin. I wasn't good at it, but I've retained enough to get simple ideas across, and there are situations in which liturgical and Vulgate Latin come in very handy indeed.

It's not always easy to get your confession heard in English in this town. There are loads of confessionals, but they are rarely manned. In some churches, (I'm looking at you Sant Ignacio) the posted times for confession are meaningless. You see it says five to six pm, you go in at 5:30 and no one is there. Other times, there is someone there, but, despite the sign that says, "English", the old guy just shrugs.

So, here's a suggestion. Learn the names of your favourite sins in Latin. Seriously. Most of the boys in the boxes in the major basilicas are elderly retired priests. With those guys, the old language is still in there, lurking about just looking for something to do.

The Roman confessionals have a window in the middle and when the priest isn't hearing someone's confession, he usually keeps the shutters open. Just go up to them and ask "In Latine?"

The old Jesuit I got today seemed bemused but game and we stumbled through. It was clear from what he said that my simple nouns and verbs (with, I'm sure, all the wrong declensions and conjugations) and jumbled mishmash of Latin and my little bits of Italian, got the message across. I more or less got the gist of what he said to me in Latin, (also simple sentences with just nouns and verbs, and doubtless all with perfect grammar). And I'm sure the formula for absolution are as deeply ingrained in an old Jesuit as ... err... some really deeply ingrained thing. (Just drew an analogous blank, sorry.)

I understood him clearly enough when he said in Latin, "Ten hail Mary's and ten Our Fathers, and say the Act of C. in English."

You know more Latin than you think you do, and it can have some very practical applications in Rome.

Catholicism is so cool.

What did Octavian sound like?

Audio Latin Lessons

The Online Latin Course. Learn Latin through Speaking and Listening. Download our free lessons to your MP3 player, and soak yourself through with the sounds of spoken Latin. It is the only way to rapidly acquire fluency. We offer free lessons in spoken Latin, and a growing repository of classical texts. LONGUM ITER EST PER PRAECEPTA, BREVE ET EFFICAX PER EXEMPLA