Intellectual and Spiritual Formation

Learn on your feet, not stuck in a seat

You won't fall asleep in the San Damiano classroom. Recovering an educational model from the days of St. Thomas Aquinas, San Damiano takes an active, dialectical, disputation-oriented approach to learning. Students come to class ready to stand and argue with each other and the faculty for or against important claims found in the greatest works written by the brightest minds and most passionate hearts of the western world.

San Damiano College for the Trades offers an integrated curriculum with no electives and no majors. Our liberal arts curriculum forms the mind through reading and discussing the great books—the greatest that has been thought and said by poets, philosophers, and theologians like Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Dante. Each course in theology and humanities features exemplars of discernment, prudence, and courage with saints’ lives and primary sources written by the saints.

Theology

5 courses

The Theology curriculum is taken over the first two years. Students immerse in Scripture to meet the God of salvation; encounter the best lives of the saints to imitate their prudence and generous abandonment to God; and disciple under the intellectual rigor of the scholastics to learn how to think and feel with the Church.

Close-up of a religious mosaic depicting Jesus Christ with a halo.

Required Intellectual Curriculum: non-credit

Humanities

4 courses

History moves but human nature remains the same. Students take four courses in the humanities during their first two years. Both poetry and prose are studied, from Homer and Dante to Shakespeare and Tolkien. Students learn the importance of story and myth—both true and false—and how culture is encapsulated in heroic tales.

A marble sculpture of a muscular warrior wearing a helmet with a crest, showing a contemplative expression.

Philosophy

2 courses

The Philosophy curriculum consists of one course taught in the first year. Using a mix of primary and secondary sources, this course introduces students to the practice of logic and the basic terms of perennial philosophy, namely the Platonic and Aristotelian tradition as synthesized and developed in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Close-up of the statue of Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, seated with his head resting on his hand, against a blue sky background.

Integrated Trivium, Leadership, and Business

3 courses

This integrated portion of the curriculum includes four courses that combine various liberal and technical approaches. We combine logic, grammar, rhetoric, leadership, and business practices.

A detailed geometric diagram with multiple labeled points, lines, and arcs, including circles and propositions, in black ink on a light background.

Music & Acolyte

6 courses

Students fulfil this course either by singing in the schola or serving at the altar as an acolyte. The Schola teaches Latin, as well as music history and theory under the guidance of the Norbertines. Acolytes will be immersed in the theology and practice of the liturgy by serving, sacristy work, and learning the rubrics and history of the Mass and Divine office.

Historical illuminated manuscript featuring Latin text and musical notation with an ornate initial letter decorated in red, blue, and gold.

Math/Science

1 course and 1 competency

Students must pass a math competency exam and learn material science relevant to the craftsmanship and restoration.

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Required Non-Academic Formation

Spiritual Formation in Manhood

Students experience the following:

  • Daily life in fraternal Christian community with shared tasks for care of the dormitories

  • Daily Mass with the Norbertines Canons

  • Daily Compline and mid-day prayer with the Norbertine Canons

  • Monthly spiritual direction and discernment program

  • Annual silent retreat led by a chaplain

Man working on a woodworking project with a clamp at a workshop, wearing safety headphones and glasses.

Pilgrimage & Work of Mercy

3 Pilgrimages of Mercy

The pilgrimage curriculum includes two two-credit experiential learning courses, each of which takes the student on a threefold experience of preparation, the pilgrimage/work of mercy itself (travel, prayer, and penance), and a reflection on the pilgrimage.

Group of people hiking through a grassy meadow with wildflowers and trees in the background.

What we offer

Useful Goods

  • A Certificate in construction trades

  • A durable, employable profession

  • No debt

  • Education in the great books

  • Up to 400 hours of technical instruction in a trade

  • Up to 2000 hours of on-the-job training in a trade

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Things Good in Themselves

  • The 4 cardinal virtues—courage, justice, temperance, and prudence

  • The 3 theological virtues—faith, hope, and love

  • The 5 intellectual virtues—craftsmanship, prudence, intuition, knowledge, and wisdom

  • Preparedness to pursue marriage and fatherhood, the ordained ministry, or consecrated religious life

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