Intensive residential Latin course focused on the Latin of the ancient Catholic liturgy, divided by previous experience. Daily TLM.

Who is the Course for?

This was has been created by the Latin Mass Society (https://lms.org.uk/) to assist clergy who wish to learn or improve their Latin in order to celebrate Mass in Latin, and for all who may be interested in the language from devotional, cultural, or scholarly motives.

What kind of Latin?

This course is concerned with the Latin of the traditional Catholic liturgy, and with the help of the Latin Mass Society’s coursebook, Simplicissimus (https://lms.org.uk/product/simplicissimus-third-edition), it makes use of examples, exercises, and reading passages from the Missal, and for the more advanced group other examples of Christian Latin. As well as introducing students to the cadences of the liturgy, this approach makes maximum use of whatever Latin students may have picked up from the liturgy.

What kind of course?

The Course is an intensive introduction to the Latin language in the context of the liturgy and spirituality of the ancient Roman liturgical tradition. Low Mass in the Traditional form will be celebrated each day during the course for all participants who wish to attend. A number of students have in the past also said or sung Compline together after the evening meal.

Students from all backgrounds are welcome at the course; all students are asked to respect the course’s special ethos, and to accept the liturgical choices of the organisers.

Students are divided into two groups, Beginners and Intermediate.

Beginners please learn these quick tables! (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bsXyQMnZ3ZWA58ayFpAhkymixBujVhO5_M3Bua1JIkY/edit?usp=sharing)

Length of the Course

The April course starts with lunch on Monday and ends with lunch on Friday.

Registration is from 11.30am to 12.30pm on Monday.

Our Tutors

Peter Day-Milne MA (Oxon) MLitt (St And) read Classics at Trinity College, Oxford and then undertook further studies in philosophy and history. He has been teaching Latin for the LMS since 2022.

Dominic Sullivan has taught Latin at the London Oratory School for 30 years.

The Venue

Once the home of the poet Robert Bridges, Chilswell House has been a Carmelite Priory for more than half a century. It is seven miles from Oxford, and set in seventeen acres of woodland.

The address is: Carmelite Priory, Chilswell, Boars Hill, Oxford, OX1 5HB

The venue telephone number is: 01865 730183/322300

Only some of the rooms have ensuite bathrooms; some rooms are twins: please see the different ticket options.

Day Students

The full fee includes bed and board, but day students pay a lower fee and arrange their own accommodation and breakfast; they can still have lunch and dinner with the other students at the Retreat Centre. There are many places to stay in Oxford and its environs; the closest, only 3.5 miles away, is the Oxford Travelodge in the Abingdon Road.

Description supplied by the event organiser.