Father Albert

I was born in 1964 in the small Alberta town of Drayton Valley to Rene and Ona Trudel. I am the youngest of my three siblings; I have one brother, Mark, and two sisters, Jody and Shawna. I grew up in the city of Calgary, Alberta, but moved with my father and mother to the town of Lloydminster for high school, and then I went on to the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon for an honours BA in English. I then attended the University of Toronto, where I received an MA in English Literature and joined the Congregation of Priests of St. Basil. I taught for a year in a Basilian high school (The Aquinas Institute) in Rochester, New York, and went to the Novitiate in Houston, Texas. I studied at St. Michael’s College Faculty of Theology and received my M.Div. degree from there in 1993. I made final profession in 1994, and then was ordained to the diaconate on Pentecost Sunday of that same year. Bishop Ricardo Ramirez ordained me to the priesthood on 11 August 1994. After a year of pastoral ministry, I did my doctoral studies in English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford from 1995-1999. I received the D.Phil. there in May 2000 for an edition of a fourteenth-century devotional treatise on the Last Things, written in English verse. I came to the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (PIMS) in Toronto after Oxford, where I completed a post-doctoral License in Mediaeval Studies in May of 2002. After completing the LMS, I was elected as a Junior Fellow of PIMS, where I worked until I discerned my vocation to the Order of Preachers. The key influence in discerning my vocation was my study of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas as a BA student, and my subsequent interest in St. Dominic as well: as an academic, I was particularly inspired by the way Dominicans combine academic study and contemplation with preaching and the care of souls. I hope to continue my teaching, research, and pastoral work in the Order. As for non-academic interests and hobbies, I enjoy listening to classical music, singing (for the past four years, I have led a Gregorian Chant schola), calligraphy, drama, hiking, skiing (both downhill and cross-country), skating, and squash.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS