Roman Catholic mass held in Latin is a rare sound these days. The language was once at the heart of Western culture and for centuries most books and official letters were written in Latin. Today, it's considered a dead language – except to those who are trying to resurrect it.
Brook Silva-Braga of CBS News reports on the life of Fr. Reginald Foster and The Paideia Institute.
One of the most important parts of this work is the "Legion Project," to "connect classicists working outside of academia." It’s a website of personal narratives written by people who have done different sorts of things with their classics training. There are lawyers and Latin teachers to be found, of course, but also data scientists and even a professional quilter. They explain the role of classics in their nonfaculty lives.
Leonard Cassuto on The Legion Project, Professor of English at Fordham University and Author of The Graduate School Mess:What Caused it and How We Can Fix It.
The Society for Classical Studies The Board of Directors of the Society for Classical Studies is pleased to give its 2015 President’s Award to Jason Pedicone and Eric Hewett, co-founders of the Paideia Institute, for their work in significantly advancing public appreciation and awareness of classical antiquity.
The Board of Directors of the Society for Classical Studies is pleased to give its 2015 President’s Award to Jason Pedicone and Eric Hewett, co-founders of the Paideia Institute, for their work in significantly advancing public appreciation and awareness of classical antiquity.
At conventions, immersion programs and youth programs, classicists and grammar fans are speaking a language often called dead.
Ann Patty, Author of Living with a Dead Language: My Romance with Latin
Summer study, a dead language, hours traveling on buses: it doesn’t sound exciting on the face of it, especially to anyone who knows how little studying takes place in many summer programs. But these summer experiences are different. A lot of Paideians come back in love—with something bigger than they’re used to, something bigger than what we usually offer them in schools and universities, and that love makes a huge difference in everything they do.
Anthony Grafton, professor of History at Princeton
[T]he “living Latin” movement is all about... a language that’s being used not just for scholarly and religious purposes, but as a way to bring centuries of classical learning into the here and now.
Ben Zimmer on Living Latin in NYC
"Quomodo dicis latine life-jacket?" quipped one of the Latin-speaking passengers on a tour boat circumnavigating Manhattan on a rainy Sunday morning in May, just after the captain's safety announcement. "How do you say life-jacket in Latin?"
Claudia Parsons on touring Manhattan with Fr. Reginald Foster and Paideia
A decade ago, a high school Latin teacher described the course to me: "I learned Latin in school, but I did not know it until I met Reginaldus."
Ted Scheinmann on his experience with Living Latin in Rome