Pronunciation of Ecclesiastical Latin and Classical Latin

The National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi

by Cliff Lamere   22 Dec 2012

The website of the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi (San Francisco, CA) formerly included the webpage below.  During a recent revision of the site, this very valuable resource comparing the pronunciations of Eccliastical Latin and Classical Latin was omitted.  I wrote to ask permission to put the information back on the internet, and received that permission from Fr. Gregory Coiro, O.F.M.Cap., Rector.

My interest in this webpage is its usefulness to choral singers of Latin works.  For centuries, choral compositions in the Latin language have been created for the Roman Catholic Church.  Masses, Requiems and Stabat Maters are but a few of them.  Whereas literary works are read aloud in Classical Latin, musical works are sung in Ecclesiastical Latin, the language of the church.  What better pronunciation resource could there be than one written by a scholarly member of the Roman Catholic Church?

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St. Francis of Assisi