The Duquesne Weekend was a retreat for

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( or ; Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened as the Pittsbu ...

students which initiated the charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church. The retreat was held on February 17–19, 1967, at The Ark and the Dove retreat center in

Gibsonia, Pennsylvania Gibsonia is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Richland Township, Allegheny County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, north of the city of Pittsburgh. It had a population of 2,733 at the 2010 Census. Its ZIP code is 1504 ...

, United States.

Background

In 1966, graduate student Ralph W. Keifer and history professor William G. Storey of Duquesne University began using the

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the Ne ...

sequence

Veni Sancte Spiritus "Veni Sancte Spiritus", sometimes called the Golden Sequence, is a sequence prescribed in the Roman Liturgy for the Masses of Pentecost and its octave, exclusive of the following Sunday. It is usually attributed to either the thirteenth-ce ...

to pray for a new outpouring of the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

. During this period they attended a

Cursillo ''Cursillos in Christianity'' ( es, Cursillos de Cristiandad, "Short courses of Christianity") is an apostolic movement of the Catholic Church. It was conceived in Spain between 1940 and 1949 and began with the celebration of the so-called "first c ...

, and were given two books which describe the experience of

baptism in the Holy Spirit In Christian theology, baptism with the Holy Spirit, also called baptism in the Holy Spirit or baptism in the Holy Ghost, has been interpreted by different Christian denominations and traditions in a variety of ways due to differences in the doctr ...

: ''

The Cross and the Switchblade ''The Cross and the Switchblade'' is a biographical book written by the Rev. David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, published by Bernard Geis Associates in 1963. Summary In 1958, Pentecostal pastor David Wilkerson of Assemblies of ...

'' and ''They Speak With Other Tongues''. In February 1967, Keifer and Storey were themselves baptized in the Holy Spirit at an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

charismatic prayer group. At the time, Keifer and Storey had already been organizing a student retreat, and, on account of their experience, they decided to center the retreat on the

Account of the retreat

One of the retreatants, Patti Gallagher Mansfield, described the Saturday night of the retreat as follows: Many of the students, including Mangan, reported

speaking in tongues Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...

that night in the chapel.

Aftermath

Keifer sent the news of the retreat to the Catholics at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

, where a similar event soon after occurred, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit began to spread. For example, by March 1967,

Ralph C. Martin Ralph C. Martin is a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and was involved in the early Catholic charismatic renewal as founder of the Word of God (community) and cofounder of the Sword of the Spirit association of covenant communities. Biog ...

, a leader in the Cursillo movement, had become among the earliest beneficiaries of the Duquesne Weekend, and went on to become a major leader in the Catholic charismatic renewal.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Ark and the Dove official website
February 1967 events in the United States Catholicism History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania