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Learn the Latin the Church actually uses.

Latin is the language in which the Church has prayed, taught, worshipped, and handed on the faith for two thousand years. Lingua Sacra Institute exists to put that inheritance within reach again — so it can be read, heard, prayed, and studied. All of it free, or as low-cost as we can make it.Latin is the language in which the Church has prayed, taught, and handed on the faith for two thousand years. We exist to put that inheritance within reach again — free, or as low-cost as we can make it.

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Why Latin

Not a preference · the Church's own tongue
Written above the CrossThe charge over the crucified Christ was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin (John 19:20). Those three languages have been held sacred ever since, and Latin is the one the Western Church kept as her own.
The Church's official languageThe liturgical books of the Roman Rite, the canons of the councils, the Code of Canon Law, and the most solemn acts of the Popes are Latin in their authentic form. Latin is what the Latin Church speaks when she speaks officially.
Two thousand years deepFor most of the last two millennia the Christian West thought, argued, legislated, prayed, and sang in Latin. The Fathers, the schoolmen, the councils, the hymns — the overwhelming majority of it is still in the language it was written in.
The authentic text is LatinTrent declared the ancient Vulgate the Church's authentic Scripture in 1546; the Clementine edition of 1592 carried that decree out, and the Nova Vulgata of 1979 is the current typical edition. A translation is only ever as good as its accuracy — which is why an argument over one line of an official text has to end in the Latin.
Our mission

Latin education today begins in the wrong century.

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Latin education is almost entirely oriented around Classical Latin, and the prevailing pedagogical methods immerse the student in the pagan Classical world — its authors, its politics, its gods. Lingua Sacra is built the other way round: our texts are Scripture, the liturgy, and the Fathers, from the first lesson to the last.

Lesson plans, textbooks, exercises, lectures, and software — free, or as cheap as we can make them, so that parishes, schools, homeschools, seminaries, and readers at home can simply use them.

Our resources

Two live · one in development · all free
Vox Vulgata screenshot

Live · available today

Vox Vulgata

A Clementine Vulgate audiobook and reader. The whole of Scripture read aloud in Latin, with the text alongside as you listen.

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Lexicon Sacrum screenshot

Live · available today

Lexicon Sacrum

A Latin dictionary and morphology analyser. Look a word up, or paste an inflected form and see exactly what it is and where it came from.

Open Lexicon Sacrum →
Lingua Sacra Reader screenshot

In development

Lingua Sacra Reader

The comprehensive companion reader for the Lingua Sacra method: the courses, the lesson plans, the texts, the study modules, and the tools, in one place.

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In preparation

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In progressTextbook & exercisesA graded course in Ecclesiastical Latin, rooted in the Vulgate, with drills and readings.A graded course rooted in the Vulgate.
PlannedLesson plans & coursesReady-made units and full courses for parishes, schools, homeschools, and seminaries.Units and courses for parishes, schools, homeschools, and seminaries.
PlannedLecturesRecorded instruction on grammar, reading, and the sacred language itself.Recorded instruction, freely available.
PlannedBreviary, Latin & EnglishThe Divine Office with the Latin and the English set side by side.The Divine Office, Latin beside English.
PlannedWritingsArticles on Ecclesiastical Latin, its pronunciation, and its place in the Church.Articles on Ecclesiastical Latin and its place in the Church.
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Give, and keep it free.

We keep everything free or as low-cost as we possibly can, which is why we rely on donors. Their gifts pay for the writing, the content creation, the development, and the editorial review, and make these resources widely available to the Church.

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