07/31/2026
Reminder about this presentation by a Patristics scholar from Rome. Details below!
Father Joseph Carola, S.J., hails from Texas. In 1980 he entered the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus at Grand Coteau, Louisiana. He was ordained priest on 24 July 1993. In 2001 at Rome’s Patristic Institute Augustinianum, he completed a doctorate in theology and patristic sciences. On 24 May 2007 at the Church of the Gesù in Rome, he took his final vows in the Jesuit Order. He is Ordinarius in the theology faculty at the Pontifical Gregorian University and director of the department of patristic theology and the tradition of the Fathers. Beginning in 2010 he served one five-year term as a consultor of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments. His publications include the monograph Augustine of Hippo: The Role of the Laity in Ecclesial Reconciliation, a study of non-Christians in patristic theology in Catholic Engagement with World Religions, various volumes of meditations on the priesthood entitled Conformed to Christ Crucified, the monograph Engaging the Church Fathers in Nineteenth-Century Catholicism: The Patristic Legacy of the Scuola Romana, and various contributions to the Augustinus-Lexikon among other studies, articles, and reviews. His historical novel about nineteenth-century Jesuits at the Roman College entitled Dragons: A Roman Requiem was published in 2026.
"Dragons is a compelling story—and a beautiful expression of family piety for the Society of Jesus. It’s told from history by one of the most illustrious Jesuits of our time. Almost two centuries have passed since the episodes in this novel, yet every page rings familiar and true."
Dr. Scott Hahn
Fr. Scanlan Professor of Biblical Theology; Founder and President, St. Paul Center
“For years, I have treasured Fr. Carola’s theological writings. That he has now produced a novel has me staying up late reading it!”
Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop Emeritus of New York
“An elegiac re-creation of the decline and fall of a Rome that once was, memories of which still haunt the Rome that is.”
George Weigel
Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center