Residential Latin Course 2025

Teaching at the Latin Course, 2024

This will be the 13th Residential Latin Course organised by the Latin Mass Society.

Additional information and preparatory material for the Latin course is available here

The purpose of the Course

We at the Latin Mass Society, mindful of our Charitable Objects to promote the ancient liturgy of the Catholic Church, and the use of the Latin language in the Church, have established this course 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

There are different registers and dialects of Latin as there are of any widely-used language, with specialist vocabulary and characteristic idioms. This course is concerned with the Latin of the traditional Catholic liturgy, and with the help of the Latin Mass Society’s coursebook, Simplicissimus, it makes use of exam ples, exercises, and reading passages from the Missal. As well as introducing students to the cadences of the liturgy, it makes maximum use of whatever Latin students may have picked up from the liturgy.

What kind of course?

The Latin Mass Society’s Latin Course is unique in providing an intensive introduction to the Latin language in the context of the liturgy and spirituality of the ancient Roman liturgical tradition. The Traditional Mass 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. Tutors are able to point to connections and insights into Catholic liturgy and theology arising from the course material, which as noted derives from the ancient Missal. Students from all backgrounds are welcome at the course; all students are asked to respect the course’s special ethos. The course is designed for adults, but we do not impose a strict minimum age.

What level of prior knowledge?

We have three tutors who will teach three groups of students, more or less advanced in their knowledge. When booking, please assign yourself to one of these groups:

(1) Those who are complete beginners.
(2) Those with some prior knowledge but need to revise from the beginning.
(3) Those who know the basic conjugations, declensions, and principles of grammar, and want to go on from there. Your self-identification can be reassessed at the start and at any point during the course.

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. In recent years he has also written essays and articles for various publications including The European Conserva tive and Adoremus, and was a contributor to A Defence of Monarchy edited by Joseph Shaw.
Emmanuel Tang is a STD candidate at the International Theological Institute Catholic University in Trumau, Austria. He had been a seminarian with the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter for six years, and has taught Latin in different pastoral assignments.
Dorothea Shaw has been studying Latin since the age of six and is currently a second-year undergraduate at Jesus College, Oxford. She specialises in Latin and Greek language and is familiar with the different teaching styles of the JACT summer programme at Bryanston and the Latinitas Foundation on- and off line. She has taught Latin for the St Catherine’s Trust Summer School.

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 booking page. 

The LMS representative on site will be Lucy Shaw: 07968 339031. Please let her know if you are 
running late for registration.

For enquiries or problems about registration through this website please contact the office on 020 7404 7284.

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.

Length of the Course

The course starts with lunch on Monday and ends with lunch on Saturday. We hope this will be as con venient as possible for priests with parish responsibilities.

Registration is from 11.30am to 12.30pm on Monday.

Testamonials

FROM FEEDBACK FROM A PREVIOUS LMS RESIDENTIAL LATIN COURSE

"I cannot thank you enough for organising this course."

"A good diversity of liturgical texts—I was particularly pleased that we did most of the Roman Canon. Participants learned a lot and had a good time."

"I found the level challenging, but not overwhelming—just right for me."

"I’ve been twice to the course now and enjoyed it, I convinced another seminarian to join me this year. I will probably come back next year…"

"Covering an ambitious syllabus did satisfy me, because by the end I did at least have a clear idea of what it is I need to learn; and of course during the week I did actually learn/relearn a great deal of basic grammar and vocabulary."

"He is very knowledgeable, is confident and has a good grasp of both subject and teaching method. I found the course challenging, informative, well structured and delivered in a mature and adult fashion."

"Speaking for myself, I have never had a language teacher who was so thoughtful in method and approach."

"You've been great!"

"And thank you again for your enlightening and energetic teaching last week... I spoke to Dr Shaw at Park Place to make sure he understood how we valued your course, and I told him there was real appetite to have your tuition again."