By Celwyn Vant, Education Desk
Banners fluttered across the campus green, bells rang from the stone tower, and the Chancellor himself addressed a crowd of robed scholars, students, and wandering sheep as St. Leo the Great University marked its first official Convocation this past week.
Founded 200 years ago, the University quickly become the intellectual heart of the Kingdom, known for its singular focus on classical philosophy, rigorous theology, and a stubborn resistance to practical subjects.
“We do not produce blacksmiths or bookkeepers,” declared Chancellor Hadrian Trell. “We produce minds, tempered like steel in the furnace of the Great Books.”
The university currently offers one undergraduate degree—a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy—and two postgraduate tracks: a Master of Arts in Theology and independent doctoral programs in both Theology and Philosophy. Classes are held in stone halls lit by natural light and warmed by argument.
This year’s entering class includes 43 students from every corner of the Kingdom, ranging from farm-raised lads with callused hands to noble daughters with a taste for Plato. One such student, Miss Ilyra Dorrin of Highmere, commented, “I joined to understand the soul. So far I’ve only gotten as far as Aristotle, but it seems promising.”
Convocation was followed by a lecture from Visiting Fellow Brother Elric, titled “Memory and the Mortal Coil: Toward a Theology of Forgetting,” which left much of the audience either enthralled or bewildered.
Despite skepticism from some corners of the court regarding its utility, St. Leo has become a gathering place for the intellectually curious. As Professor Marren, Dean of Theology, put it: “We are planting oaks, not radishes.”