We continue our series on the "Love of Learning" with an exploration of the curriculum being offered in the novitiate. This week we look at Abbot Matthew Stark's course in Latin, which remains a crucial language both in litrugical life and in central texts of the church and of Benedictine life.



Wheelock’s Latin was originally published in 1956, roughly contemporaneous with Matthew Stark’s entry into the community at Portsmouth Priory. Not that we intend to force a correlation there, but it is curious to see that he is now using Wheelock to instruct Latin in the novitiate. Latin was also the first course that he taught in the School, before moving into Christian Doctrine for Form III. Teaching Latin now enables him to return to his “college major,” although his path both to college and to the major was somewhat circuitous.
He admits that despite his four years of high school Latin, he felt more the novice in that subject than any other when he returned to the study of it at Portsmouth. It was the one course in the novitiate, taught by Dom Julian Stead, that, well, he failed. Was this failure really a serious problem? Serious enough for Prior Aelred Graham to tell the young Stark that it was time to, “Learn Latin, or leave.” This seems to have been prompting enough for him to not only apply himself to the subject, but ultimately to make it his major area of study when he was sent to Saint Louis University to complete his undergraduate studies. It was the long, winding train trip to Missouri - “back then we did not fly so much” - that gave him time to reflect further on his choice of major: church history. Time to consider the volumes of required reading, the immensity of the topic, the relentless demands of the discipline. It had been one of his favorite courses in the novitiate. Yet somehow it occurred to him that Latin, after all, might be the way to go. When he departed St. Louis, he had attained a degree with a major in Latin, as well as minors in Greek and philosophy. The last, offered by “highly intelligent and hard-working" Jesuit scholastics who were expert in the field, “and knew it,” had been an undesired requirement as a prerequisite to the studies required for a future ordination. The former proved to be well chosen, and certainly addressed Aelred Graham’s ultimatum.

The course Abbot Matthew now offers has two goals. To enable the novice to read the Latin Vulgate, and to enable him to read the Rule of Saint Benedict. Knowledge of the Vulgate serves as the basis for an understanding of the antiphons of the Graduale, sung daily at the conventual Mass. One of the cantors now leading in that singing, Br. Joseph Byron, who translates the Introit for the congregation prior to each Sunday conventual Mass, Matthew describes as one of his star pupils in Latin in the novitiate. The second principal target is the grounding monastic document, the Rule of Saint Benedict. To access it in its original language obviously enriches its meaning, and also broadens opportunity for reflection and meditation. Beyond these two texts, Abbot Matthew notes that a possible future study of theology, particularly of the medievals such as Thomas Aquinas, is also enhanced.
The novitiate curriculum may not contain the formal expectations of a standard academic program, Abbot Matthew sees that for a novice, “It is beneficial for there to really be a bending of the mind to the subjects.” In Latin, the novice is consistently presented with assignments, meets twice weekly, and stays with the study for at least the duration of the novitiate. Abbot Matthew recalls the challenges of his own novitiate program, then under novice master Dom Philip Wilson, and with fondness the course in church history offered by a layman, Mr. Frank Lally, who also long taught in the School: “Truly an excellent scholar, teacher, and a good person.” Abbot Matthew still regrets not (yet) having read some of the many books Mr. Lally had recommended. Matthew Stark was the lone “survivor” of his novitiate, which had included two others who, sooner or slightly later, came to realize their vocation did not lie here. Matthew’s certainly did. He himself later served as novice master, though only briefly, “filling in” assisting others in the task. After his visit of several years to Regina Laudes to assist that community, he upon return served again for some time as novice master in the 1990’s. Fr. Ambrose Wolverton and Fr. Julian Stead also had carried the mantle, as did Dom Damian Kearney, whom Matthew remembers as maintaining the duty for the longest duration. And while our present novitiate remains small, with one monk currently on the road to simple vows in this community, it in fact has never been large, expanding at most to “four or five” at the upper end, and typically at two or three. Matthew seems to enjoy the opportunity to return “to the classroom,” and offer instruction in the language of the Church and the language of Saint Benedict.