About Scala Sancta
Elizabeth Lev
Elizabeth Lev's road to reversion began with Dante, passed through Caravaggio and ended with Michelangelo. After studying Renaissance art at University of Chicago and doing graduate work at University of Bologna in Baroque art, in 1996 she moved to Rome, where the intersection of the sacred and the beautiful opened her eyes to greater and deeper meaning in art. Elizabeth presently teaches art history at Duquesne University's Italian campus, including a survey of Christian art in Rome, a course of her own design. She also writes for Inside the Vatican and is a regular contributor to Zenit news agency.
Gregory DiPippo
Love of the Latin language and its literature brought Gregory DiPippo to Rome over ten years ago after receiving his BA in classics at McGill University. After studying with the famous Papal Latinist Fr. Reginald Foster, he was fortunate enough to discover that Rome is also the home of the Augustinian Patristic Institute for the study of the Church Fathers. After completing his course work there, Gregory began working for the cultural association Scala Reale; his Patristic studies have enabled him to present the monuments of the ancient city as tools for learning about the transformation of Imperial Rome into the capital of Christianity. Gregory's extensive knowledge of the Catholic liturgy enables him to show the rich historical tradition embodied in the art and architecture of Rome's Christian churches.
John Boyden
John Boyden's interest in history and theology brought him into the Catholic Church at age 16 and the city of Rome 12 years later. He studied theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (the Angelicum), which complemented his major in Philosophy from La Salle University in Philadelphia. This training has given John an excellent background for grasping the depth of Christian thought that permeates so much of the art and architecture of Rome. For the past six years he has been a docent for Context Rome/Scala Reale where he is particularly specialized in the four Major Basilicas, which for John embody the universal aspect of the church as pilgrimage center.
Eric Hewett
Eric studied historical linguistics and ancient Indo-European languages -- Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and Latin -- at Rice and the University of Pennsylvania. He then left the United States in order to spend his twenties traveling around Europe, seeing historical, beautiful and interesting places and things, and learning modern languages. After many years moving across Europe, he came to Rome in November 2004 to settle down. After a year learning Italian, exploring the city, and studying Latin with the great Vatican Latinist Reginald Foster, he enrolled in the Licenza (M.A.) program at the Augustinianum, a pontifical institute dedicated to the study of the writings of the Church Fathers. He is now unusually well-informed on theological controversies of the first six centuries and really ought to be working on his thesis as you read this.