Residential Summer Studies

Experience the beauty of our Front Royal campus as you continue your intellectual and spiritual journey.

Each summer, the Graduate School offers a variety of studies that are completed in-person at Christendom’s beautiful campus in Front Royal, Virginia.

Six-Week Graduate Courses

The Graduate School offers accelerated courses onsite during the summer.  All courses are held at Christendom College’s Front Royal campus. Students are able to live in the campus dormitories for the duration of the course. The beautiful riverside campus with its full range of recreational possibilities provides a perfect milieu for the study, prayer, and good times that make up Christian academic community life.

Residence halls are all conveniently located within three minutes walking distance of the classrooms, chapel and dining hall. Laundry facilities are available in each dormitory. Meals are served three times a day in the St. Lawrence Commons. Holy Mass is celebrated daily in the Chapel of Christ the King at the heart of the campus. Morning and Evening Prayer and the Rosary are prayed daily in community, and the Sacrament of Penance and spiritual direction are available on a regular basis.

Both the Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree and the Apostolic Catechetical Diploma may be earned over the course of at least four summers.  Many of the fall/spring graduate students also attend summer courses, accelerating their studies by going year-round.

Vita Consecrata Institute

The Vita Consecrata Institue (VCI), co-sponsored by the Institute on Religious Life, is held every summer in conjunction with the Graduate School Summer Study. The VCI is an intense summer course of theological studies and spiritual renewal for religious, priests, seminarians, and other consecrated persons. The VCI focuses on the theology of the consecrated life as reflected in the mission and life of the Church, and on the theology of the spiritual life. Students penetrate the mystery of the consecrated life by investigating magisterial documents (especially those of Vatican II and Pope John Paul II), by examining the rich historic tradition of the Catholic Church, and by prayerfully reflecting on this wondrous gift. The institute is structured in such a way as to assure religious men and women the full living of their consecrated life in a context of prayer, silence, study, and community. Students may earn graduate credit towards the degree of Master of Arts in Theological Studies (concentrating in either spirituality or consecrated life) or they may attend for personal renewal, auditing courses and participating in the liturgical life of a community enriched by the religious of various congregations.

The Classical Languages Institute

The Classical Languages Institute provides students with an opportunity to master the languages of ancient civilization in the company of friends. 

During the first three weeks of the Graduate School’s onsite summer semester, the Polis Institute offers intensive spoken-immersion language courses. From the first day, all lessons are conducted in the language. Polis uses techniques based on the way in which children acquire their mother tongue, allowing the students to develop a keen intuition in understanding and speaking the language. The study includes 90 hours of full immersion classes and activities and corresponds to a semester (3 credits each).

The Classical Languages Institute has also offered higher-level intensive courses in several different languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic.