Faculty/Staff Directory
Br. Thomas Sullivan, OSB

Br. Thomas Sullivan, OSB

Professor Emeritus: History; Director of Alumni Relations

Education:

Ph.D. (History), University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1982. Dissertation: “Studia Monastica: Benedictine and Cluniac Monks at the University of Paris, 1229-1500 (William J. Courtenay, Director).

M.A. (Library & Information Science), University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996.

M.A. (History), University of Indiana-Bloomington, 1974.

B.A. (Philosophy), Conception Seminary College, 1971.

Bio / Information:

Br. Thomas’ research interests include the following: monks at the medieval university, monastic colleges at the medieval university, the Faculty of Theology at Paris in the late Middle Ages, medieval libraries (especially that of the Collège de Sorbonne), and the relative wealth of monasteries in late Middle Ages.

Publications:

Monographs

  1. Parisian Licentiates in Theology, A.D. 1373–1500. A Biographical Register. Vol. 2: The Secular Clergy. Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
  2. Parisian Licentiates in Theology, A.D. 1373–1500. A Biographical Register. Vol. 1: The Religious Orders. Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 18. Leiden: Brill, 2004. xii + 465 pp.
  3. Benedictine Monks at the University of Paris, A.D. 1229–1500. A Biographical Register. Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 4. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995. xii + 458 pp.

Articles and Book Chapters

  1. “Counting Everyone: The 1880 Federal Census and the Prosopography of the Benedictine Communities at Conception, Missouri.” Out for review.
  2. “Ranking and Adoption in the Licentiate Program of the Parisian Faculty of Canon Law, 1416-1448.” In Pecia 27 (2024): 241-57.
  3. William J. Courtenay (co-author), “Pre-Theological Education at Paris for Monastic Students in the Fourteenth Century.” In Pecia 27 (2024): 215-30.
  4. and Benedict Neenan, Harmony in Art. The Beuronese Murals of Conception Abbey. Conception Abbey, n.p., 2023.
  5.  “Licentiate Examinations in the Parisian Faculty of Canon Law, 1415-1448.” In Examens, grades et diplômes: la validation des compétences par les universités du XIIe siècle à nos jours: actes du colloque international orgainsé par le LaMOP et l’IHMC, 6-8 septembre 2018, université Panthéon-Sorbonne, edited by Thierry Kouamé, Bruno Belhoste, et Boris Noguès, 129-38. Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2023.
  6. “Alard of Palenc: Bachelor of Theology and Socius of the Sorbonne,” History of Universities, 33.1 (2020): 1-16.
  7. “’A Claim on their Gratitude’: Portrait Panels in the New Library of the Sorbonne,” History of Universities 31.2 (2018): 23-47.
  8. “Gregory the Great. “Dialogues II (Life of Benedict)”: An Annotated Bibliography.” American Benedictine Review 29 (2018): 296-313.
  9. “Pope Benedict XII’s Prior Studentium, a Little Known Monastic Official.” In Studies in Later Medieval and Intellectual History in Honor of William J. Courtenay, edited by William O. Duba, Russell Friedman, and Christopher Schabel, 417-36. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.
  10. “‘Two Choirs of Angels’? The 1369 Visitation of Montpellier’s Collège Saint-Benoît.” American Benedictine Review 67.2 (June 2016): 125–57.
  11. The Karen Gould Collection: Spencer Art Reference Library. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Conception, MO: The Printery House, 2013).
  12. “Monastic Values and Echoes of the Rule of Benedict in the Statutes of 1365 for the Cluniac College at Paris.” American Benedictine Review 63.3 (2012): 331–53.
  13. “‘Ut nostra religione refloreat studium‘: The Studia of the Monastic Orders.” In Philosophy and Theology in the Studia of the Religious Orders and at the Papal and Royal Courts. Acts of the XVth Annual Colloquium of the Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale, University of Notre Dame, 8–10 October 2008, edited by Kent Emery, Jr., William J. Courtenay, and Stephen M. Metzger, 529–48. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.
  14. “The Quodlibeta of the Canons Regular and the Monks.” In Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century, edited by Christopher Schabel, 359–400. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
  15. “The Monastic Orders at the Medieval University of Paris: A Prosopographical Analysis.” In Université, église, culture: l’université catholique au Moyen-Âge. Actes du 4ème Symposium, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 11–14 mai 2005, edited by Pierre Hurtubise, 345–76. Paris: Fédération internationale des Universités catholiques, 2007.
  16. “Benedict of Nursia,” (735-36), “Benedictine Order,” (104-6), “Desiderius of Monte Cassino” (295), “Monte Cassino,” (735-736), “Subiaco, monasteries of,” (1061-62). In Medieval Italy. An Encyclopedia, 2 vols., edited by Christopher Kleinhenz, Routledge Enyclopedias of the Middle Ages, 9 (New York: Routledge, 2004).
  17. “Completion Rates and Time-to-Degree Figures for the Mid-Fifteenth Century Parisian Faculty of Theology.” Medieval Prosopography 22 (2001): 180–93.
  18. “Merit Ranking and Career Patterns: The Parisian Faculty of Theology in the Late Middle Ages.” In Universities and Schooling in Medieval Society, edited by William J. Courtenay and Jürgen Miethke, 127–63. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
  19. “Cistercian Theologians at the Late Medieval University of Paris.” Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses 50 (1999): 85–101.
  20. “Benedictine Masters of the Medieval University of Paris: Careers and Regency.” Medieval Prosopography 18 (1997): 189–208.
  21. “Merit Ranking, the Religious Orders, and the Parisian Faculty of Theology in the Later Middle Ages.” In The Vocation of Service to God and Neighbour: Essays on the Interests, Involvements and Problems of Religious Communities and Their Members in Medieval Society, edited by Joan Greatrex, 135–44. Turnhout: Brepols, 1997.
  22. “The Latin Cenobitic Rules: AD 400–700: Editions and Translations.” American Benedictine Review 48.1 (1997): 52–68. (With Mary Forman, OSB.)
  23. “Benedictine Masters of the University of Paris in the Late Middle Ages: Patterns of Recruitment.” Vivarium 31.2 (1993): 226–40.
  24. “The Visitation of the Collège de Cluny, 1386.” History of Universities 11 (1992): 1–31.
  25. “The Collège de Cluny: The Statutes of Abbot Simon de la Brosse (1365).” Revue Bénédictine 98 (1988): 169–70.

Consulting Editor

  1. Kaczynski, Bernice M., ed., Thomas Sullivan, Consultant Editor. The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism. First edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Out for Review

  1. “Counting Everyone: The 1880 Federal Census and the Prosopography of the Benedictine Communities at Conception, Missouri.”