A friend on social media recently shared this link to a recording of Fr Reginald Foster OCD, one of the great Latin scholars of our age, commenting on the Latinity of the Easter sequence Victimae Paschali. This was originally broadcast on Vatican Radio as part of a program in which he regularly participated called The Latin Lover. The link is one of dozens hosted on a website run by Fr Gary Coulter; the program was originally broadcast on Good Friday of 2007.
https://www.frcoulter.com/latin/latinlover/latin_04_06_07.mp3Fr Foster was a American priest of the Discalced Carmelite Order who worked at the Vatican for 41 years (1968-2009) in the office that produces the official Latin text of all kinds of ecclesiastical documents. For most of that period, also taught Latin at the Gregorian University during the regular academic year, and offered a summer intensive course (8 weeks, 6 days a week, plus excursions on most Sundays) that was frequented by students from all over the world. The breadth and depth of his knowledge of Latin were truly astonishing, and he was one of the most talented, generous and patient teachers one could ever hope to meet. His health declined quite badly in his later years, but he continued to teach as much as he could for as long as he could, until he passed away on Christmas day of 2020. Gaudeat in Paschate sempiterno!
