News

This year’s James M. May Lecture in Classics will be delivered by St. Olaf College alumnus His Grace the Right Reverend Irenei (Matthew Steenberg ’01), Ruling Bishop of the Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). 

The ninth annual May Lecture will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 13, in Viking Theater in Buntrock Commons. It will be streamed live and archived online. The title of Irenei’s talk is “‘Cicero Speaks Norwegian’: Reconsidering Perpetual Contextuality in Classical and Religious Studies.”

The May Lecture in Classics was established to honor Professor Emeritus of Classics James May, who retired from St. Olaf in 2017 after a distinguished 40-year career as teacher, scholar, administrator, and mentor to generations of students.

Bishop Irenei shares that he feels “a deep connection to the Classics Department, which played an extremely important role in my personal formation.” He adds that this connection is part of what continues to draw him back to St. Olaf.

“It was for me a delightful surprise and honor to be invited to give the Jim May Lecture,” he says. “In general, I am always happy to support St. Olaf whenever I can; I cannot imagine there are many requests that they would make that I would not race to honor in return.”

Professor of Classics and Department Chair Anne Groton says she’s grateful for the many alumni and friends who stay connected to department. “The topic of each May Lecture is up to the speaker, but because most of the lecturers are associated with Jim May — either as his professional colleagues or as his former students — they often choose to speak about the ancient Roman orator whom Jim loves the most: Marcus Tullius Cicero,” Groton says.    

Bishop Irenei’s connection with May goes back to when he was a student at St. Olaf from 1997-2001, when he majored in religion and classics. He describes May as “a man who not only taught me Latin, but also Greek, history, and humor, and the way that good scholarship, good piety, and good wit can bridge together many worlds.”  

Reflecting on the role St. Olaf — and especially the Classics Department — played in his development, Bishop Ireni recalls the transformative nature of his expanded access to the world of the ancients. 

“I first set foot in the Classics Department in my initial week at St. Olaf, having registered for a beginning course in classical Greek. I of course had the kind of superficial, passing familiarity with ancient Rome and Greece that a student gains in secondary and high school, but this was the first occasion when those ancient worlds were suddenly being made alive to me — the languages opening up, so I could read their actual words and hear their voices; cultures being exposed as living things, composed of living people, by people who had dedicated their whole lives to learning and sharing them; It was an eye-opening experience.”

Bishop Ireni is the author of numerous books and articles. His eminent career as a scholar was already foreshadowed by the many accolades he received as an undergraduate, including being named Student of the Year in St. Olaf’s Great Conversation (now known as the Enduring Questions) program and as St. Olaf’s first-ever British Marshall Scholar. He earned a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, specializing in the writings of the early Church Fathers, especially St. Irenaeus of Lyons — whose name he took when he became an Orthodox monk and priest.

Groton expressed deep gratitude to Bishop Irenei for making time to travel  to Minnesota amid his demanding international schedule:

“He has a grueling travel schedule, flying from one country to another every couple of days,” Groton says. “We’ve been encouraging him to take it easy when he gets here, but he has already agreed to visit four classes in addition to giving his lecture!”