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 Institute for the Study of Eastern Christianity presents a lecture by Jesse Siragan Arlen (Fordham University, The Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center), The Poetic World of St. Nerses Shnorhali 12:30 -1:30 p.m. on Monday, October 16th 2023 in Caldwell Hall Room 119.

The Center welcomes Dr. Nathan Tilley (Ph.D. Duke 2022) as Visiting Assistant Professor of Early Christian Studies and Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. He specializes in Syriac Christianity, with particular interests in asceticism, Christology, late ancient philosophy, and theology and medicine.

Congratulations to Dr. Carl Vennerstrom, Ph.D. 2023, on his appointment as Assistant Professor of Theology at the Augustine Institute Graduate School.

Congratulations to Dr. Yuliya Minets on her move to the Department of Modern Languages and Classics at the University of Alabama and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor.