Our programs

An Evening with Dana Gioia

October 20, 2026
6:00-9:00pm
Cocktail attire

Bacchus
925 E Wells St
Milwaukee, WI 53202

con·viv·i·um (Latin)
A feast shared among friends;
from con- (together) and vivere (to live);
An evening of conversation, hospitality, and friendship in support of the St. Irenaeus Institute

Da·na Gio·ia
Poet, essayist, literary critic
Former Poet Laureate of California and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
One of America's most distinguished literary voices

Gather with friends old and new for an evening of feasting, rich conversation, and a keynote address by Dana Gioia, in support of the St. Irenaeus Institute.

Each year, the St. Irenaeus Institute, in partnership with UWM Newman Center and the Panther Catholic Student Organization, hosts a public lecture which takes place at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It is delivered by a noteworthy Catholic scholar on a topic or question that is urgent, at home in the broadly Western tradition, and that calls for robust engagement between Catholic and secular learning. Past lectures have been given by philosopher Jennifer Frey ("The Life of the Mind: Intellectual Virtues and Human Flourishing") and political philosopher and public intellectual Patrick J. Deneen ("Plato's Republic and Ours"). The lectures are free and open to the public.

Information about the winter 2027 lecture will be available later this fall.

The St. Irenaeus Lecture in Patristics, which takes place at Marquette University, is delivered each January by an esteemed patristics scholar. It aims to provide a clear and accessible but intellectually substantive introduction to the text or topic under discussion in the Spring Fides Patrum series. Past lectures have been delivered by Marcus Plested (on Origen’s On First Principles), Fr. Andrew Summerson (on St. Gregory’s Theological Orations), John Cavadini (on Augustine's Confessions), and Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent (on Ephrem the Syrian's Hymns on Faith).

We are pleased to announce that this winter the St. Irenaeus Lecture in Patristics will be delivered by renowned patristics scholar Hans Boersma (Chair, Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ Endowed Professorship in Ascetical Theology, Nashotah House) on the mystical theology of Dionysius the Areopagite. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, 2027 in the beautiful Eisenberg Reading Room at Marquette University's Sensenbrenner Hall.

This fall, St. Irenaeus Executive Director Dr. Aaron Ebert will be teaching a for-credit course at UW-Milwaukee entitled, "Early Christianity: The First Millennium and its Legacy" (RELIGST 309). The course will explore how Christianity was understood, practiced, and integrated into people's lives in the first millennium A.D.; what were the intellectual, political, and social challenges the Church faced as it developed; and how Christianity has shaped later Western history, from the Renaissance, through the Reformation & Enlightenment, down to the present day.

The course will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30-3:45 p.m. in Merrill Hall G16 at UW-Milwaukee. It is open to non-degree-seeking students.

To learn more about the course, contact Dr. Aaron Ebert (aaron.ebert@st-irenaeus.org).

Men and women are athirst today for a deeper and richer interior life, a life of prayer, devotion, and contemplation. But it is a universal human experience, as well as the teaching of the great saints and doctors of the Church, that such depth and richness are not easy to come by. We lack good models and guides. We are prone to distraction and failure of discipline. We cannot easily tell whether spiritual dryness is evidence of a heart grown cold or, in fact, a grace sent by God intended to draw us deeper into His love. Toward this end, St. Irenaeus is now offering an annual, fall short course on a classic text of the spiritual tradition. In its inaugural iteration, the seminar, led by Dr. Joshua Hren, read, pondered, and engaged deeply with St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle. In the fall of 2026, we will continue in the Carmelite tradition with St. John of the Cross and his Spiritual Canticle.

Fides Patrum (“The Faith of the Fathers”) is a seminar series dedicated to exploring the rich and extensive theology of the Church Fathers. Each fall and spring we run a new five-part series. Past series have explored such texts and topics as St. Irenaeus’ Against Heresies; Origen’s On First Principles; St. Athanasius’ On the Incarnation; St. Gregory the Theologian’s Five Theological Orations; Nicaea and its Legacy; and the theology of St. Augustine.

Doctores Ecclesiae is an ongoing project of the St. Irenaeus Institute focused on the 38 Doctors of the Catholic Church and their distinctive contributions to the Church's understanding of her faith. The Doctors are the preeminent "teachers" (Latin: doctores) of the Catholic faith and, therefore, should have a normative role in teaching that faith to the Church. The first phase of the project involves an extended study of each of the Doctors and their writings so as to identity their defining insights and teachings. The second phase of the project will organize these insights into a comprehensive curriculum for the study of theology and catechesis. The goal is to tailor this curriculum for use in the Church at various levels, whether lay education, seminary formation, or advanced academic study. If you wish to support or participate in this project, please contact us at aaron.ebert@st-irenaeus.org