LATROBE, PENNSYLVANIA – The Rev. Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B., a noted author and Sacred Scripture scholar, will speak at the 153rd annual commencement of Saint Vincent Seminary, to be held Friday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Vincent Archabbey Basilica. Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, O.S.B., Seminary Chancellor, will preside.
Father Demetrius, who is also a Seminary faculty member, is the author of two published books, Flowers in the Desert , recently reprinted, and Cherish Christ Above All: The Bible in the Rule of Benedict. His third book, on which he is currently working, is tentatively titled: The Fourth Gospel: A Mystical Portrait of Jesus. He is also co-author of a weekly column on the Sunday Homilies on the Saint Vincent Archabbey website (http://benedictine.stvincent.edu/archabbey).
Born on a farm in northern Cambria County, near Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, Father Demetrius, one of nine children, is the son of a farmer and grandson of a carpenter.
Graduating from Saint Vincent Preparatory School in 1940, he received a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Saint Vincent College in 1945, and attended Saint Vincent Seminary from 1943 to 1946. He received a Doctor of Sacred Theology degree in 1950, from the Pontifical Institute of Sant’ Anselmo, Rome, and studied at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, from 1950 to 1952, after which he received a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Commission, Vatican City.
He entered the Benedictine Monastic Community of Saint Vincent Archabbey in 1942. He made simple profession of vows on July 2, 1943, and solemn profession of vows on July 11, 1946. He was ordained a priest at Subiaco Abbey, Italy, by the Most Rev. Lorenzo Salvi, O.S.B., on December 7, 1947.
At Saint Vincent Seminary he has taught Sacred Scripture since 1952. He served as Rector of the Seminary from 1963 to 1980 and Vice Rector from 1955 to 1963. He also taught Biblical Greek from 1952 to 1959, and was Professor of Hebrew from 1959 to 1961. Father Demetrius was Seminary Director of Spiritual Life from 1989 to 1993. He has given a series of lectures in England to the Union of Monastic Superiors, comprising all the abbots and abbesses of the Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries in Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland, and has given a number of retreats in England, Ireland and Taiwan. He has given retreats at most of the Benedictine monasteries in the United States, for Bishops of thirteen states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. He is a major contributor and one of the editors of the Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology. He has also contributed to the New Jerome Bible Commentary. He has written numerous articles for The American Benedictine Review and The New Catholic Encyclopedia.Saint Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, has graduated and prepared more than 2,300 men for the priesthood since its founding by Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., in 1846.
