A Place of Brightness: Benedict XVI

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Learning Latin with Pope Francis - April 16, 2016

To visit my archive of Latin Papal Tweets, go to my main page.

April 16, 2016

Literal translation of the Latin: Today Benedict XVI performs (his) birthday solemnities. Let us pray for him, giving thanks to God that He gave him both the Church and the world.

Ad multos annos, Benedicte!

Here's how the Latin works:

Latin	English	Parsing	Grammar Points
Hodie	Today		adv.
Benedictus	Benedict	nom. sing. masc. name	Benedictus, Benedicti, derived from past part of benedicere, to bless
XVI	the 16th
natalicia	birthday	acc. pl. neut. adj.	natalicius, natalicia, natalicium
agit	does/performs	3rd pers. sing. pres. act. ind. verb	ago, agere, egi, actus
sollemnia	solemnities	acc. pl. neut. noun	sollemne, sollemnis
oremus	let us pray	1st pers. pl. pres. act. subj. verb	oro, orare, oravi, oratus; hortatory subjunctive
pro	for		prep + abl.
eo	him	abl. sing. masc. dem. adj.	is, ea, id
gratias	thanks	acc. pl. fem. noun	gratia, gratiae
referentes	giving/referring	nom. pl. pres. act. part.	refero, referre, retuli, relatus
Deo	to God	dat. sing. masc. noun	Deus, Dei
quod	because		conj.
ipse	he himself	nom. sing. masc. dem. adj.	ipse, ipsa, ipsum
et	both (and)		conj.
Ecclesiae	to the Church	dat. sing. fem. noun	Ecclesia, Ecclesiae
et	and		conj.
mundo	to the world	dat. sing. masc. noun	mundus, mundi
eum	him	acc. sing. masc. dem. adj.	is, ea, id
dono	as (for) a gift	dat. sing. neut. noun	donum, doni; double dative construction
dedit	gave	3rd pers. sing. perf. act. ind. verb	do, dare, dedi, datus

Thursday, February 14, 2013

A Great Week for Latin!

By Keith Massey, PhD. Connect with me on Google+ and Twitter. Explore my novels at Lingua Sacra Publishing.

The world was rocked by the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI this week. After the dust settled, we Latinists were delighted by the sudden attention he gave the Latin language by delivering that resignation in Latin itself.

Now, in an earlier post, I made it very clear that I wish His Holiness nothing but the best of health and many years in a long peaceful and restful retirement. I pointed out that the Latin text of the resignation as it was posted on the Vatican Website contained a typo (pro Ecclesiae vitae instead of pro Ecclesiae vita). I further asserted that I was certain that His Holiness was not personally responsible for the typo. (I mean, when you're the Pope you have people to do the typing.)

Even so, I was surprised to learn that some people felt my pointing out of this typo was, eo ipso, disrespectful to the Pope. I utterly reject that. I'm a perfectionist on typos within my own writing. And I make plenty of them. I would want any typo in my writings brought to my attention so I could fix them.

For the record, the Pope himself did not say out loud the typo. The video above makes that clear.

In Saecula Saeculorum, the 4th Novel in the Valquist Series

In this fourth novel of the Valquist Series, Andrew Valquist is retired (?) from the National Security Agency and teaching Latin at a Classical Academy in the Washington DC area. But in the world of espionage, looks can be deceiving. He's not necessarily happy with the role he has played in all this, but the school was actually a joint NSA/MI-6 Project in which four young people have been unwittingly prepared for a mission to travel back in time to ancient Rome to retrieve information from a library that may save the modern world from certain destruction. They know they have to at least try to save humanity, but can they also save each other?

Next Stop: Spanish, the 3rd Novel in the Valquist Series

This third novel in the Valquist Series can be read as an espionage action-adventure in its own right, but also you can use it as a way to either brush up on your Spanish or learn functional Spanish for the first time! John Valquist needs to learn Spanish. But he's in luck, since his uncle Andrew is a language expert and a former (?) spy who is taking him on a vacation to Spain so he can study the language. In Next Stop: Spanish, you have the chance to see and study the words John studies, and then watch him add more and more Spanish into his dialogue as the story progresses. During this vacation, they get pulled into espionage intrigue (why do these things always happen to the Valquist family?). In the dramatic conclusion, John will need to put together everything he has learned to save his uncle!

Amor Vincit Omnia: the 2nd Novel in the Valquist Series

In this second novel of the Valquist Series, Keith Massey takes you into the halls of the National Security Agency, where he himself worked for four years after 9/11 and an Arabic linguist. You follow our hero Andrew Valquist, as he starts work as a new recruit at the NSA. Little does he know that on his first on the job, he's about to fly off on an unexpected overseas assignment. He'll be even more surprised when he learns that his background in ancient Latin will be crucial to the mission!