Father Wetta Visits Aquinas

Fr. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B., of Saint Louis Abbey in Saint Louis, Missouri was an in-demand speaker during his whirlwind visit to Nashville last month. He was the featured speaker at the Diocese of Nashville’s teachers in-service workshop, he addressed the Family Faith Night gathering at Overbrook School, and then he gave an evening lecture at Aquinas College on ‘The Envy of Angels: How to Make the Most of Your Eucharistic Journey.’ Amid this hectic schedule, Fr. Wetta also generously agreed to participate in a daytime gathering at the college with faculty and students that was centered around his recent novel, The Eighth Arrow: Odysseus in the Underworld, and his fondness for reading and teaching classical literature.

A lively, free-flowing conversation ensued in which Fr. Wetta touched on a number of topics, including how an impromptu (and uninvited) hike to the writer Philip Pullman’s house served as the catalyst for writing The Eighth Arrow, how he engages his students at Priory School to open themselves to reading the classics, why he prefers The Iliad over The Odyssey, and that St. Drogo is the patron saint of unattractive people. The central theme of this gathering was particularly apropos as The Odyssey is a required text in several courses regularly taken by Aquinas students and a course on epic literature is among the classes being offered this semester at the College. Humor and fellowship permeated the room and those in attendance departed with a smile and hopefully a few new insights on teaching classical literature to Generation Z.