Silver book cover with St. Peter (550/600).
New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund 1950.
Image in the Public Domain

 Welcome!

The Center for the Study of Early Christianity is an interdisciplinary research center of the Catholic University of America reporting to the Provost. It administers its own graduate program and awards Mellon-Helis Fellowships in Early Christian Studies. It also sponsors a broad range of related scholarly activities, including lectures, seminars, conferences, workshops, publications, and networks of affiliation. The Andrew W. Mellon Chair of Early Christian Studies is integral to the functioning of the Center, and the distinguished scholar who holds this endowed chair fulfills its expectations - through teaching, research, and publication - within the framework of the Center.

Our Goals

  • To foster an interdisciplinary approach to the study of early Christianity across the whole University.
  • To provide the setting and the resources, and to create regular and special events, that will help all faculty and graduate students in the field to share their interests and enthusiasms, build on what they have achieved, and develop new ideas and projects.

Our Governing Principles

  • We believe that the development of early Christianity has to be studied in its social, political, and cultural context.
  • We emphasize the importance of the ancient languages of the early Christian era - Greek especially, but also Latin, Syriac, and Coptic (along with several other languages of the Christian Orient).
  • We aim to develop within each student the skills proper to a range of disciplines and methodologies.

History of the Center

Graduate Admission Portal

News and Announcements

The North American Patristics Society (NAPS) has awarded this year's Dissertation Research Grant to Ms. Elizabeth Anderson, doctoral candidate in Early Christian Studies. Congratulations, Elizabeth! 

On May 17th 2025 Mr. AJ Lopez was awarded his MA in Early Christian Studies. Congratulations, AJ!

On April 24th 2025 Dr. Nathan Tilley (Semitics/Early Christian Studies/Greek and Latin) gave a talk at Hamilton College (New York) titled “Reading Medicine and Theology in the Same Light: Entangled Knowledge in East Syriac Christianity.”

On Nov. 21, 2024, a ceremony for the dedication and blessing of the Philip and Thérèse Rousseau Memorial Library was held in McMahon 207.