Conferences & Events | Pappas Patristic Institute

Conferences

Upcoming gatherings on Early Christianity and Patristics

Lectures

Upcoming talks by prominent scholars in the field

Courses/Workshops

Summer programs, online courses, and more

Exhibitions

Current exhibitions relating to the world of the Fathers

Trips/Excursions

Opportunities to visit holy sites, monasteries, and ancient lands

Events Menu

Conferences

21--23 May 2026

NAPS (North American Patristics Society)

The 2026 Annual Meeting of the North American Patristics Society will take place on May 21–23, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago

The deadline to submit proposals is November 19, 2025.

For more details and information, click here.

2--5 June 2026

Paideia 2026: Orthodoxy Speaks to the Human Heart (Antiochian Village, PA)

Fouth annual Meeting of the PAIDEIA Society, a community of Orthodox Christian scholars, clergy, monastics, and laity dedicated to the development of Orthodox Christian culture.

The deadline to submit proposals is February 28, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

9--12 June 2026

16th International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (Duke University)

The focus of this year's conference is the Oratio Catechetia. Plenary speakers: Mark DelCogliano, Hélène Deneux, Volker Drecoll, Lenka Karfíková, Morwenna Ludlow, Gabrielle Thomas, and Ilaria Vigorelli.

The deadline to submit proposals is October 1, 2025.

For more details and information, click here.

3--7 August 2026

Symposium Syriacum / Conference of Christian Arabic Studies

The 14th World Congress of Syriac Studies (Symposium Syriacum) and the 12th Conference of Christian Arabic Studies, which will be held for the first time in Southeastern Europe, in Bucharest, Romania, from August 3 to 7, 2026, under the auspices of the Romanian Academy.

The registration and abstract submission period is open from June 1 to December 1, 2025.

For more details and information, click here.

10--14 August 2026

Origeniana XIV (Boston College)

The Fourteenth Gathering of the International Origen Colloquium: Origen and the Development of Christian Thought. This year's conference will utilize a quaestio disputata format, exploring the following questions: Is Origen a systematic thinker? Did Arianism emerge as a consequence of Origen’s theology? Is there a Political Theology in Origen’s work? After the resurrection, will the body be purified or annihilated? Did Origen actually hold the doctrine of the preexistence of souls?

Deadline to book hotel at conference rate: July 10, 2026

For more details and information, click here.

22--24 August 2026

12th Nordic Patristic Meeting: Prayer in Late Antiquity (University of Helsinki, Finland)

The meeting aims to explore the theme of prayer in late antiquity, both as a religious practice, the subject and medium of theological thought, and a socio-religious identity marker. Keynote speakers include Anni Maria Laato (Åbo/Turku), Barbara Crostini (Uppsala), Maria Munkholt Christensen (Bonn), Harald Buchinger (Regensburg), and Bishop Damaskinos (Olkinuora) of Haapsalu.

Deadline for proposal: 15 November 2025

For more details and information, click here.

24--29 August 2026

25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Vienna

The International Congress of Byzantine Studies is the world’s largest academic event dedicated to the latest research and findings on the Byzantine Empire, its history, and culture. Since the first congress in 1924 in Bucharest, it has been held approximately every five years in different locations, attracting up to 1,500 participants in recent years. In 2026, the 25th Congress will take place in Vienna, where researchers from around the globe will present their work in hundreds of presentations. Cultural events and receptions will offer numerous opportunities for informal exchange. Exhibitions and collaborations with the city of Vienna and individual cultural institutions will also make the academic research accessible to a wider audience.

Inaugural Lecture: Maximilien Durand, Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art, Louvre Museum, Paris

Call for papers deadline: October 31, 2025

For more details and information, click here.

1--3 September 2026

2o Congreso Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Estudios Patristicos: Puentes de diálogo para una unidad que renace (Bogotá, Colombia)

El II Congreso Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Estudios Patrísticos: Puentes de diálogo para una unidad que renace es un espacio académico que reúne a investigadores, docentes y estudiantes para profundizar, desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar, en el pensamiento cristiano de los primeros siglos y en la vigencia del legado patrístico ante los desafíos actuales. Concebido como un puente de diálogo entre diversas tradiciones cristianas y contextos de nuestra región, promueve la cooperación y el intercambio crítico mediante conferencias, mesas temáticas y presentaciones de investigación. Con este espíritu, el Congreso busca consolidarse como un referente regional que impulse nuevas lecturas y metodologías capaces de iluminar el presente a partir de las raíces del cristianismo y de abrir caminos hacia una unidad que renace.

Proposal deadline: 22 May 2026

For more details and information, click here.

2--5 September 2026

Exegesis and Reception of the Psalms (Göttingen)

First international Göttingen conference on the Septuagint (Die Editio critica maior des griechischen PsaltersNiedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen).

Registration deadline: 3 September 2026

For more details and information, click here.

25--26 September 2026

The Athonite Collections and Their Challenges: Open Access, Traveling Exhibitions, and Digital Surrogates

This symposium at Princeton University aims to tackle the challenges of studying the Athonite collections (including religious icons, liturgical objects, manuscripts and other documents containing valuable insights into the past) and other such religious repositories. These are challenges that restrict scholarly inquiry and therefore limit the development of new perspectives and the full appreciation of the unique collections and the history of the communities themselves.

Call for papers deadline: December 20, 2025

For more details and information, click here.

8--10 October 2026

Patristic Exegesis as Contemplation: The Spiritual Sense of Scripture

This international conference on the campus of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology will bring together a wide range of scholars and specialists in biblical studies and historical and systematic theology to examine the relationship between the Church Fathers and the spiritual reading of Scripture. It will explore the tradition of patristic exegesis as a form of contemplation or contemplative activity in which theoria, as both vision and interpretation, is applied to the inner meaning or spiritual depths of the biblical text.

For more details and information, click here.

9--11 October 2026

Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference (PMR), Villanova University

The International Patristic, Medieval and Renaissance Conference is an annual academic conference bringing together keynote speakers and scholars from around the world and across the country. This three-day event has been held since the mid-1970s and is a true tradition of scholarship. This year's conference has for its theme 'Poverty, Simplicity, the Common Life, and the Mendicant Legacy.'

Call for papers deadline: June 30, 2026

For more details and information, click here.

22--25 October 2026

52nd Annual Byzantine Studies Conference (BSANA) - University of Notre Dame

The BSC is the annual forum for the presentation and discussion of papers on every aspect of Byzantine Studies and on related topics relevant to the field. Conference attendance is open to all, regardless of nationality or academic status.

Call for papers deadline: May 25, 2025

For more details and information, click here.

27 November 2026

Voices from the Ambo: Homiletic Discourse in Byzantium and Beyond (Bucharest)

Participants: Dimitris Agoritsas, Aleksandar Anđelović, Theodora Antonopoulou, Marie-Hélène Blanchet, Archimandrite Policarp Chițulescu, Olivier Delouis, Mircea Duluș, Cristian Ioan Dumitru, Maria-Lucia Goiană, Marco Fanelli, Guoda Gediminskaitė, Raúl Estangüi Gómez, Petre Guran, Tasoula M. Markomihelaki, Mihail Mitrea, Elissaveta Moussakova, Antonio Rigo, Elisabeth Schiffer.

For more details and information, click here.

17--21 January 2027

International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA) Conference 2027 (Republic of Georgia)

IOTA’s third mega-conference will take place in Poti and Kobuleti, Republic of Georgia. The conference will include pilgrimage to area monasteries and a keynote address by John Behr (University of Aberdeen). The theme of the conference is “Tradition and Traditions."

Call for papers deadline: May 15, 2026

For more details and information, click here.

2--6 August 2027

20th International Conference on Patristic Studies (Oxford)

The International Conference on Patristic Studies has taken place in Oxford every four years since 1951. Initially conceived as an oecumenical colloquium for a select group of clerical scholars, it has expanded decade by decade until in 2015 it welcomed almost a thousand delegates, clerical and lay, from all the world’s continents, and encompassed a great diversity of subjects from the New Testament to Palamas, and from liturgy to postmodern theories of gender. It is organized by a board of scholars from various universities in the United Kingdom, with the assistance of the presidents of the Association Internationale des Études Patristiques and the North American Patristics Society.

Workshop proposal deadline: August 31, 2026

For more details and information, click here.

Lectures

Return to Top

Lectures

May 19, 2026 (10 AM Central European Time)

Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts Seminar

Pilgrimage to Saint Thecla: Access and Authority

Grace Stafford

The GenAut Project hosts a monthly online research seminar with papers from scholars that work on these traditions from other perspectives or on different languages than our project.

For more details and information, click here.

May 19, 2026 (11 AM Eastern European Time)

SRSB - Romanian Society for Byzantine Studies

What Happened to Biblical Theatre in Byzantium?

Barbara Crostini (Uppsala)

To Register, email contact@srsb.ro.

June 16, 2026 (11 AM Eastern European Time)

SRSB - Romanian Society for Byzantine Studies

Polemica e polemisti contro l’Islam: novità e tradizione in età paleologa

Marco Fanelli (Venice)

To Register, email contact@srsb.ro.

June 23, 2026 (4 PM Central European Time)

Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts Seminar

The Cult of Saint Clement in Iceland

Margaret Cormack

The GenAut Project hosts a monthly online research seminar with papers from scholars that work on these traditions from other perspectives or on different languages than our project.

For more details and information, click here.

July 14, 2026 (10 AM Central European Time)

Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts Seminar

Saint Dionysius the Areopagite and Those with Him: What They Say to Us from the Liturgical Calendar

Basil Lourié

The GenAut Project hosts a monthly online research seminar with papers from scholars that work on these traditions from other perspectives or on different languages than our project.

For more details and information, click here.

August 11, 2026 (10 AM Central European Time)

Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts Seminar

Apostolic Successors in Epigraphic Databases: What Does the Data Show?

Rachael Helen Banes

The GenAut Project hosts a monthly online research seminar with papers from scholars that work on these traditions from other perspectives or on different languages than our project.

For more details and information, click here.

September 15, 2026 (4 PM Central European Time)

Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts Seminar

Addai, Protonike, and the Veneration of the Cross

Kelli Bryant Gibson

The GenAut Project hosts a monthly online research seminar with papers from scholars that work on these traditions from other perspectives or on different languages than our project.

For more details and information, click here.

October 20, 2026 (10 AM Central European Time)

Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts Seminar

Between John and Paul: The Hagiography of Hermione of Ephesus in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Claudio Biagetti

The GenAut Project hosts a monthly online research seminar with papers from scholars that work on these traditions from other perspectives or on different languages than our project.

For more details and information, click here.

November 10, 2026 (10 AM Central European Time)

Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts Seminar

Contextualizing Ignatius of Antioch within John Chrysostom’s Homilies on the Martyrs

Jonathon Lookadoo

The GenAut Project hosts a monthly online research seminar with papers from scholars that work on these traditions from other perspectives or on different languages than our project.

For more details and information, click here.

December 8, 2026 (10 AM Central European Time)

Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts Seminar

Seeing Is Believing: Visual Devotion and the Making of the Magdalene in Early Modern Italy

Siobhán Jolley

The GenAut Project hosts a monthly online research seminar with papers from scholars that work on these traditions from other perspectives or on different languages than our project.

For more details and information, click here.

Courses

Return to Top

Courses and Workshops

May 11--August 7, 2026

Summer Latin Program - online (Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto)

The Centre offers several non-credit summer Latin courses facilitated by senior CMS graduate students who are thoroughly fluent in Latin and experienced Teaching Assistants (TAs). They work under the supervision of the faculty members teaching Medieval Latin and are trained specifically for these courses; we take great care in making appointments to these positions.

Beginning Latin: May 11 - July 3

Beginning Review: July 7 - 23

Level I Review: May 5 - 15

Level I Latin: May 18 - June 26

Level II Latin: July 2 - August 7

Registration Deadline: May 1, 2026

For more details and information, click here.

June 1--18, 2026

Introduction to Syriac (Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute)

Students with no prior experience in Syriac will learn introductory reading, writing, and grammar using The New Syriac Primer, 4th Edition and should be able to translate introductory texts by the end of the course using a dictionary. Taught by George A. Kiraz and Hannah Stork.

Application deadline: March 6, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

June 1--18, 2026

Intermediate-Advanced Syriac (Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute)

This course is geared towards students who have already learned Syriac and would like to dig deeper into the grammar and nuances of the language. Each day we read texts, work through the grammar of Coakley-Robinson, and translate between Syriac and English. Taught by George A. Kiraz and Hannah Stork.

Application deadline: March 6, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

July 13–24, 2026

Byzantine Greek Summer School (University of Vienna)

The program will include three hours of intensive language instruction in two 90-minute sessions every morning, combined with thematic seminars, visits to relevant cultural institutions in Vienna, and professional development sessions in the afternoons. Approximately 4 to 5 hours each day will be spent in class. Students are expected to spend the remainder of their time preparing for these sessions.

Application deadline: March 22, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

June 22--26, 2026

Introduction to Arabic Manuscript Studies - online (HMML Summer School)

For graduate students, advanced undergraduates, faculty, and independent scholars with a research interest in Arabic manuscripts. The program welcomes international applicants. It is completely virtual.

Application deadline: March 6, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

June 22 -- 14 August, 2026

Introduction to New Testament Greek (Princeton Theological Seminary)

Covering the equivalent of a yearlong introduction to the elements of New Testament Greek with emphasis on the mastery of forms, basic vocabulary, and syntax. Selected portions of the Greek New Testament are read in the second half of the course.

For more details and information, click here.

June 22 -- 14 August, 2026

Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (Princeton Theological Seminary)

Covering the equivalent of a yearlong introduction to Hebrew grammar, with emphasis on reading selected portions of the Hebrew Bible.

For more details and information, click here.

July 5--25, 2026

Intermediate Classical Armenian - HMML Summer School (Saint John's University, Collegeville, MN

In partnership with Dumbarton Oaks and the Zohrab Center of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, HMML will host an intensive three-week course on Classical Armenian for the intermediate level in summer 2026. This course is intended for doctoral students or recent PhDs who can demonstrate a need for Classical Armenian in their research. Priority is given to students who lack opportunities to study Armenian at their own institutions. The program welcomes international applicants but does not sponsor J visas.

Application deadline: February 23, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

July 5 -- August 1, 2026

Introduction to Ge'ez - HMML Summer School (Saint John's University, Collegeville, MN

In partnership with Dumbarton Oaks, the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library will host an intensive four-week course on the Ge’ez language at an introductory level in summer 2026. This course is intended for doctoral students or recent PhDs who can demonstrate a need for Ge’ez in their research. Priority is given to students who lack opportunities to study Ge’ez at their own institutions. The program welcomes international applicants but does not sponsor J visas.

Application deadline: February 23, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

July 6--17, 2026

Summer School of Languages of the Christian East (Università Pontificia Salesiana, Rome)

Target Audience: all those interested in the rudiments of Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Ethiopic, Georgian, vernacular Greek and Syriac languages and literatures: be they undergraduate or graduate students, young scholars or professors. Morning lessons and afternoon seminars. Availability of lodging with breakfast, lunch,
dinner. Certification: Final certificate of attendance.

Registration deadline: May 1, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

July 20 -- 31, 2026

International Byzantine Greek Summer School - Beginners (Trinity College, Dublin)

All courses will run online in small groups led by experienced teachers. Each level comprises two weeks of full-time study, with two two-hour teaching sessions daily.

Application deadline: April 20, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

July 27 -- August 1, 2026

Lincoln College Summer School in Greek Paleography

The tenth Lincoln College International Summer School in Greek Palaeography will be held on 27 July - 1 August 2026. The school offers a five-day introduction to the study of Greek manuscripts through ten reading classes, three library visits and four thematic lectures. The school does not charge student fees. Students are individually responsible for their transportation and living expenses in Oxford. A limited number of bursaries, covering accommodation (but not board), may be granted to highly qualified applicants who are unable to obtain financial support from their home institutions.

Application deadline: January 31, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

August 3 -- 14, 2026

International Byzantine Greek Summer School - Intermediate and Advanced (Trinity College, Dublin)

All courses will run online in small groups led by experienced teachers. Each level comprises two weeks of full-time study, with two two-hour teaching sessions daily.

Application deadline: April 20, 2026.

For more details and information, click here.

Exhibitions

Return to Top

Exhibitions

No new information at this time.

Trips

Return to Top

Trips and Excursions

No new information at this time.

Return to Top