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Polyglot popes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4831 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 9 of 15 30 June 2012 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's a good point. When people used to refer to the "Latin Mass", they forgot (or did not realise) that it contained Hebrew and Greek influences. I was an altar server in the 1950s and 1960s, and remember being taught that the opening prayers: "Introibo ad altare Dei. [I will go to the altar of God] Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. [To God, the joy of my youth...."] http://www.traditio.com/office/masstext.htm were at least to some extent reminiscent of the introduction to services in the synagogue at the time the mass was being forumulated. On a lighter note, there was a fun letter in today's Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/jun/29/euro-2012- merkel-giles-fraser 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6871 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 10 of 15 01 July 2012 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
I thought I had already responded to this, but now I cannot find my post. Anyways: I'm not sure the time thing is accurate. Back when Pope John Paul II passed away, I remember reading that a leading factor in death in popes, along with advanced age, was exhaustion. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 5149 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 11 of 15 02 July 2012 at 2:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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I guess Popes´ age is a rather random factor. The XX century had eight popes, but the XIX
century had only five. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| melkior79 Newbie Japan Joined 4634 days ago 16 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Latin, French | Message 12 of 15 02 July 2012 at 9:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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JP II was fluent in 7 languages and I heard he could speak up to 14 to various degrees.
Benedict's Latin is reputed to be excellent. When he was the head of the Congregaion for the Doctrine of the Faith (The modern Inquisition) he often conducted proceedings in Latin. Reginald Foster also attested to the fact that the Popes spoken Latin is brilliant. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4642 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 13 of 15 06 July 2012 at 11:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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I do not know about Popes, but I do know about some Catholic priests who are amazing polyglots. They tend to belong to one of the Holy Orders, which I guess makes sense, because e.g. Jesuits and Dominicans put a lot of emphasis on learning and knowledge.
I'd like to mention Kjell Arild Pollestad, a Norwegian Dominican priest and writer. I have never seen a complete list of his languages, but from his writings it is known that he is more or less fluent in English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Icelandic and modern Greek. He has obviously studied Classical Greek, Latin and Hebrew, but also Coptic, Assyrian and Georgian. In one of his books he also mentions studying Arabic (which he found difficult) and Armenian. Finally, he knows Old Norse and has recently made a new translation of the Kings' Saga by Snorri Sturluson. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rykketid Diglot Groupie Italy Joined 4836 days ago 88 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: French | Message 14 of 15 16 July 2012 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think that it is almost a necessity, in my opinion the reason dwells inside the name
of the Church. Catholic comes from the Greek word καθολικός (katholikos) meaning universal. Indeed the Catcholic Church has always been the most international of the Christian Churches. An anecdote that I read in a magazine and that I really appreciated is that Pope John Paul II wanted to learn some Thai because a visit to a Catholic community in Thailand was on the schedule, and he wanted to make them understand that the Church was near all its devouts, even the small communities scattered around the world. Of course it wasn't an easy goal to achieve for a person in his seventies (or eighties, I don't remember when this happened), considering that Thai has 5 tones, giving the wrong intonation to the Lord's Prayer could have turned it into a joke. But he successfully managed and the Thai catholics got the Lord's Prayer in their language. Edited by Rykketid on 16 July 2012 at 6:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| yenome Hexaglot Newbie United States Joined 5377 days ago 37 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, French, Persian Studies: Thai, Arabic (Iraqi), Mandarin | Message 15 of 15 24 July 2012 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I would've overestimate the amount of free time popes have. In many ways, they have to function as heads of state, receiving many visitors, making policy decisions, etc.
Benedict also has excellent knowledge of classical Greek, for what it's worth. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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