Villanova’s Motto Seventy Years On..

Published: 7 June 2018

Villanova College and its motto have now been going for seventy years.

Villanova College is a school conducted by the Roman Catholic Order of St Augustine in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It has just attained its seventieth anniversary. It now enrolls 1,200 male day students in years 5 to 12, but began in February 1946 with about forty pupils. The College motto “Vincit Veritas,” which is Latin for truth conquers, is reminiscent of the saying by St Augustine of Hippo (3566 – 430 AD) that “Only Truth conquers.” (Sermon 358, 1)

This particular motto was chosen because it happened to be displayed on the family crest of the owners of the Augustinian residence and property where the College began in Hamilton, Brisbane in early 1948.

Villanova remained at its Hamilton site for the school years of 1948 to 1953 inclusive, and then transferred to its present site at Coorparoo in the opposite (southern) side of the Brisbane River.

The former Hamilton Priory (residence) of the Augustinian friars was demolished by subsequent owners about twenty-five years after the Augustinians had departed it, but the family crest bearing the motto Vincit veritas was saved from demolition and brought to the College’s Coorparoo site. There it remained in storage for another twenty-seven years, and in xxx was incorporated into the facade of the Hanrahan Theatre that was opened on 25 May 2005 at the College’s main entrance from Dower Street.