Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P.
Very Rev. Augustine Thompson, O.P. is a Catholic priest of the Order of Preachers. He is Praeses (President) of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaevel Studies at the University of Toronto. Fr. Thompson has had a distinguished academic career holding senior teaching positions at the University of Oregon and the University of Virginia (Charlottesville), as well as the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California. A well-published medieval historian, his many books and articles include most notably Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (Cornell University Press, 2012) and Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes, 1125–1325 (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005). His latest book is Dominican Brothers: Conversi, Lay, and Cooperator Friars (New Priory Press, 2017). Fr. Thompson’s research interests are the religious life of High Medieval Italy, as well as medieval intellectual and cultural history generally. He is a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty of the GTU, American Catholic Historical Society, American Historical Association, American Society of Church History, The Medieval Academy of America, and Iuris Canonici Medii Aevi Consociatio (International Society of Medieval Canon Law).