{"product_id":"the-popes-latinist","title":"The Pope's Latinist: A Life of Reginald Thomas Foster","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePreorders will ship on December 17th. To receive your order in time for Christmas, we recommend selecting expedited shipping at checkout.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Paideia Institute Press is pleased to announce \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Pope's Latinist\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, a biography of Fr. Reginald Foster, O.C.D., by John Byron Kuhner, now available in a beautiful hardcover edition.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor two generations of English-speaking Latin students, one of the great rites of passage was studying with the Vatican’s expert Latinist, Fr. Reginald Foster. He taught tirelessly – ten classes a year at Rome’s Gregorian University – and for free: courses were open to anyone who was willing to do the work, whether they had registered and paid or not, and he took no salary for his efforts. Then there was his summer school. He rented a classroom, printed course materials, and taught nearly a hundred students all at his own expense. In eight intense weeks he would offer the same number of instructional hours as ten full university courses. His goal was to inspire teachers, and inspire them he did – thousands of his students went into classrooms all over the world, and founded organizations to spread a love of Classics (the Paideia Institute among them).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLegends grew up around Reginaldus: he slept without a mattress on a tile floor, gave away all his possessions but his Latin books and classical music collection, harassed the wealthy and powerful who were treated with deference in the back halls of the Vatican, and befriended and aided the poor and humble on the streets of Rome.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Pope’s Latinist\u003c\/em\u003e tells the whole story – the man, the myth, the Latin. From a humble apartment in Milwaukee to speaking Latin in seminary to teaching Latin to bishops at the Second Vatican Council to working for four different popes before finally returning to Milwaukee. How did an American end up as the Vatican’s greatest Latin expert? How did a plumber’s son turn into an academic wunderkind who was corresponding with Vatican Latinists in Latin at the age of fifteen? How did a young man who had chosen a future as a cloistered Carmelite monk become a media darling profiled by \u003cem\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/em\u003e and the BBC? How did a zealous Midwestern altar boy and dedicated papal servant turn into one of the Vatican’s most notorious critics?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor those who never met Reginaldus, \u003cem\u003eThe Pope’s Latinist\u003c\/em\u003e captures the experience of being in the man’s classroom: exposure to a lost world of Latin that long outlasted the Roman Empire, access to the inner workings of the Vatican, the man’s daily titanic effort, the freewheeling and sometimes outrageous commentary. It describes his meetings with the Latinists who inspired his work and whose methods would become his own, and those who disappointed him in various ways. It is also a unique look at the Catholic Church from Pius XII to Pope Francis – a time of upheaval and change – told from the perspective of a man who had a front-row seat to it all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Paideia Institute Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50925617610822,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1367\/8563\/files\/Pope_sLatinistcover_justcover.jpg?v=1793812270","url":"https:\/\/store.paideiainstitute.org\/products\/the-popes-latinist","provider":"The Paideia Institute Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}