Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (PUST) – Angelicum
Rome
The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, Italy, has its roots in the Dominican mission, to study, teach and preach the truth, as reflected in the Order’s motto, “Veritas”. The University participates in the doctrinal and spiritual tradition of the Order of Preachers, going back to Saint Dominic and cultivated in dialogue with the signs of the times by brothers and sisters of the Order, from Saint Albert the Great and Saint Thomas Aquinas to our days. This theological and dialogical charism can be succinctly expressed by another of the Order’s mottos, “contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere”, to contemplate and to share the fruits of contemplation with others.
The PUST consists of the Faculties of Theology, Philosophy, Canon Law, and Social Sciences, along with the Mater Ecclesiae Institute, with its primary goal of preparing religion teachers, linked to the Faculty of Theology. Classes are presently offered in Italian and English for students of about 100 different nationalities. The PUST also has various research institutes, some of which also offer teaching, such as the Thomistic Institute (Istituto San Tommaso d’Aquino), the Institute of Ecumenical Studies, the Institute of Spirituality and the John Paul II Institute for Culture. Various centers of theological and philosophical studies in different regions of the world are affiliated or aggregated to the Faculties of Theology and Philosophy of the PUST, or sponsored by them.
The Angelicum offers university education where faith and reason work together. It aims to form students as virtuous leaders, capable of evangelization and promoting integral human development. Illuminating the present by the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas, students, professors, and staff share in Dominican study, prayer, community and preaching. Among its illustrious students is Karol Wojtyła, Saint John Paul II.
École Biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem (EBAF)
The École biblique is situated close to the Old City of Jerusalem, near the Damascus Gate, on the site of a 5th century Byzantine basilica, built where Christian tradition venerated the martyrdom of St. Stephen the protomartyr: hence the name of the convent, Saint-Etienne (St. Stephen), given to the religious community of Dominicans who run the École biblique.
Since its creation, the École biblique has helped to pioneer biblical exegesis and archaeological research in Israel and the neighboring regions. It has acquired great scholarly renown in the fields of epigraphy, Semitic linguistics, Assyriology, Egyptology, as well as in ancient history, geography, and ethnography.
Faculty of Theology
University of Fribourg – Switzerland
The Faculty of Theology at the University of Fribourg is the largest theological faculty in Switzerland, and one of two Catholic theology faculties integrated into a State University. It is subject to national law, like the other university faculties, but in addition, it is acknowledged by the Church and is supported by the Dominican Order and the Swiss Bishops’ Conference. The Faculty of Theology serves the Church as a community, as well as its individual members, and helps society as a whole.
The full bilingualism of the Faculty, which offers a complete course of study in German and French in the field of “Theology”, is unique in Europe. Students also have the opportunity to take courses in both languages and obtain, under certain conditions, a bilingual diploma. The new field of study “Christianity and Religion” brings an opening by linking the perspectives of the sciences of religions and theology. This program is offered in German and bilingual French and German.
It should be added – and this is a strong point of the Faculty of Fribourg – that studies in theology can be combined, according to interests, with branches of other faculties, either from the Faculty of Letters, from the Faculty of Law, of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences as well as of the Faculty of Sciences.
More than half of the teachers and almost half of the students of the Faculty of Theology come from abroad. The spirit of a Catholicism open to the world characterizes the life of the Faculty as well as of the whole University and this gives Fribourg, as a place of study, an international reputation and recognition. The growing number of Reformed and Orthodox students shows the ecumenical spirit of the formation. Finally, the fairly high percentage of doctoral students testifies to the Faculty’s great competence in research.
There are two Dominican convents in Fribourg, the Albertinum, a convent under the jurisdiction of the Master of the Order, and the Couvent Saint-Hyacinthe, the formation community of the Swiss Dominican Province, where also students and professors from other provinces live.
Commissio Leonina – Paris
The Leonine Commission is a group of researchers in charge of the critical edition of the complete works of St. Thomas Aquinas. Founded by Pope Leo XIII on October 15, 1879 and very soon afterwards entrusted to the Dominicans, this project came to be known as the Leonine Collection. From 1879 to 1949, the Leonine Commission was able to publish sixteen volumes.
Reorganized during the years 1949-1952, and established in Paris in 2003, the Leonine Commission has continued its activity of research on the Aquinas’ genuine doctrine and edition. It has so far published twenty three volumes of much higher critical quality, based on exhaustive searches for manuscripts, and stricter critical methods. In addition to critical Latin texts, the volumes contain prefaces providing historical contextualization of St. Thomas’ works and documentation of his named and unnamed sources.
“At the heart of the Order and in cooperation with the academic institutions of the highest level and the most qualified researchers, the Leonine Commission works on the critical edition of the writings of Saint Thomas. It thus develops the understanding of the cultural and historical context of his teaching.” (ACG Biên Hòa 2019, 361).
Historical Institute of the Order of Preachers (IHOP) – Rome
The Historical Institute of the Order of Preachers (Institutum Historicum Ordinis Praedicatorum), also known as the Dominican Historical Institute under the jurisdiction of the Master of the Order was founded in 1930 by the former Master of the Order Martin-Stanislas Gillet OP giving a new institutional form to an earlier tradition of a Dominican historical school in Rome. Originally headquartered in the convent of Santa Sabina in Rome, and was transferred to the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (PUST) in 1975.
It is a research institute fully equipped with a specialized library with the aim of promoting scientific studies on the history of the Order. Its mission is to research the history of the Order, to present the results of its research in scientific publications, lectures, conferences, and colloquia, to collaborate with Dominican and non-Dominican scholars, and to promote the formation of young Dominican historians. The Institute publishes the annual journals Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum and Dominican History Newsletter, and the monographic series Monumenta Ordinis Praedicatorum Historica and Dissertationes Historicae.
General Archive of the Order of Preachers (AGOP) – Rome
The General Archive of the Order of Preachers (AGOP) is kept at the convent of Santa Sabina, where the Master of the Order resides. The twenty-one archival series that makes up the AGOP house the government archives of the Order of Preachers: Correspondence of the General Curia with the Holy See, with the Roman congregations, but especially with the provinces and monasteries; Encyclical letters of the Masters of the Order; Acts of the General Chapters; Appointments to certain offices of government; statistics of the Order; Affiliations of Dominican congregations or secular institutes; Organization of the life of the Order in many of its dimensions (Third Order, Fraternities of the Rosary or of the Holy Name of Jesus, liturgy, etc.). The archives also house the important historical collections of the general postulation of the Order (causes of the Blessed, of the saints, of the doctors of the Church). Finally, they include iconographic collections: essentially engravings from the 16th to the 18th century, then iconographic collections dating, for the oldest, to the end of the 19th century.