Increasingly, students face a fast-paced, technology-addicted world that loves efficiency, amusement, utility, and virtual reality; a world that has lost an appreciation for stillness, nature, craftsmanship, and incarnational community. 

Seeking to keep the good, the true, and the beautiful a lived tradition, the Cædmon Fellowship starts with an immersive, technology-free week of life together. Each class is a small, select group of classically-educated upper school students from across the country who gather to grow.

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The Fellowship week is built upon three, time-tested, classical disciplines:

1. Virtue formed through ora et labora.

Ora et labora is the classical monastic habits of liturgical prayer (ora) paired with physical labor (labora). Fellows learn to pray the Psalms throughout the day, following The Rule of St. Benedict (A.D. 516). Fellows also engage in physically demanding communal work — taking care of the animals and planting, tending, and harvesting the garden which provide much of the food eaten during the week.

2. Minds challenged by fides quærens intellectum.

Fides quærens intellectum means ‘faith seeking understanding.’ There is a Great Conversation that started thousands of years ago and will continue beyond our lifetime, rooted in faith and devotion to Christ, and seeking to understand God, man, the cosmos, and everything in between. Fellows join in the Great Conversation — contemplating those tough, timeless questions — with interdisciplinary, student-led ‘Great Book’ discussions which build upon and extend what Fellows have already learned through their curricula. 

3. Fellowship strengthened through σχολή.

Σχολή (or Scholé) is the classical concept of intentional, edifying leisure. Fellows spend time in quiet, thoughtful reflection. Fellows learn to make local, home-grown meals and beautiful music together. Fellows explore nature as they hike in the Shenandoah National Park, tube down the Shenandoah River, and wander through the Luray Caverns together. All things good for the soul. 

Imagine what one amazing week of holistic living, incredible discussions, and beautiful community — without any digital technology or distractions — does for the heart, mind, and strength of a teenager. Students have spent their entire classical education reading about the good life; the Cædmon Fellowship is the chance to live it.

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Once a Cædmon Fellow, always a Cædmon Fellow:

After leaving the Sinclair House, Cædmon Fellows become a member of a large alumni network of past Sinclair House attendees, are invited to return for regular weekend Sinclair House Seminars, and are paired up with a classically-minded young professional mentor in their field of interest — academia, medicine, craftsman, law, etc. — to help guide them in whatever comes after they graduate.