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Letter from Valladolid


Robert Colquhoun, a pre-seminary student from Westminster sends this account of his first week at Valladolid.

Dear All, I have settled in at the Royal English College in Valladolid and the first week has been really interesting and a great induction.

The first four days were a retreat at the country house based 20 minutes outside of Valladolid. There we met the Rector, Fr Michael Kujacz, Fr John Pardo and Fr Kevin Mclouglin who will be working with us for the year. We are about 20 students in total from all over the UK doing the propadeutic year (a pre seminary year).

We moved into the College on Sunday night. It has recently been renovated and there is also a conference centre here. The College is home to some amazing paintings of the martyrs and kings of Spain as well as some of the Virgin Mary and all the Rectors. The three libraries have some very rare books; the collection here is considered as one of the top 20 collections of books in the world. It has some originals by William Caxton, William Shakespeare, a translated Koran and all the original textbooks from the time of the original students in 1589.

The history of the college is most interesting. Established by the King of Spain, Charles the First was a visitor. Titus Oates studied here. At least six saints were also students. Another claim to fame is that the college introduced football to Spain. Valladolid has been the capital twice in Spain's history and so it has a rich cultural history.

The university has more than 30,000 students. Our formal timetable starts today. This includes Catechetics, Mass, mmorning and evening prayer, Spanish lessons, spiritual direction, study, siesta and much more. There is so much to explore, and I look forward to learning more about our 500 years of history, finding the hidden stairways and visiting the archives, where many a secret may be unearthed.

best regards, Robert

For more information about the Royal English College Valladolid see: www.valladolid.org

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