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Healing Body & Soul

Schola Medica · Est. Anno Domini MMXXV
“The Lord created medicines out of the earth, and a sensible man will not despise them.” — Sirach 38:4
Led by Prof. Dana Rodriguez, PhD PNP-BC 21 Years Practicing

A Christian school of health with two halves that are one project: a live telehealth practice serving families today, and a K–12 formation curriculum that teaches the body as an imago Dei. We stand in the tradition of the medieval schools of medicine — Salerno, Padua, Montpellier — and we carry their argument into the present century.

Tempe · Arizona AZ & WI Telehealth ESA Eligible
Prof. Dana Rodriguez, PhD — founder and clinical lead of Vitae Catholica
Prof. Dana Rodriguez, PhD · PNP-BC
— Founder & Clinical Lead —
The Clinic — Available Now Vitae Formation & the Quintivium — In Authoring
A Note from the Curator

Vitae Catholica takes its visual and intellectual language from the two Christian schools that first taught the West to read the human body as a moral and theological object — the Schola Medica Salernitana of the eleventh century and the anatomical theatre of Padua in the Renaissance. Every page is laid out as a plate in a manuscript, every image is labelled as a museum would label it, and every claim is attributable to a real source.

Movement I · Overture

Medicus curat, Christus sanatMedicine treats; Christ heals.

Two halves, one project. The clinicVitae Health, operated by Rodriguez Corporation — sees families today: a Christian telemedicine practice serving Arizona and Wisconsin, ESA-eligible and built on the patience of a real clinician. The curriculum — authored by Vitae Catholica, an Arizona 501(c)(3) nonprofit — is in active authoring: a K–12 formation that teaches the human body as an imago Dei, anchored by the twelve-volume Quintivium textbook series.

Movement I·Overture·The Two Halves of Vitae

Movement II · The Two Halves

What Vitae Is


A clinician's practice and a classroom: two halves of one Christian argument about the body.

Pars Prima

The Clinic — Available Now

A live Christian telemedicine practice by Vitae Health (a DBA of Rodriguez Corporation), led by Prof. Dana Rodriguez, PhD. Pediatric wellness, developmental assessments, parent coaching, chronic-condition management, and Christian bioethical counsel — delivered by video or phone across Arizona and Wisconsin.

Operated as a clinical S-Corp separate from the 501(c)(3) — which keeps care distinct from curriculum while both share the same Schola Medica standard. Fee structure discussed at intake; ESA-eligible for qualifying families.

Pars Secunda

The Formation — In Authoring

A K–12 Christian health formation curriculum that teaches the human body as a moral and theological inheritance. Anchored by the twelve-volume Quintivium textbook series — co-authored by Zeus Rodriguez and Dana Rodriguez, PhD — and integrated with catechetical, philosophical, and clinical sources.

The Quintivium is the third pillar of the classical liberal arts: Trivium · Quadrivium · Quintivium. When it launches, it will be a required core subject at every Virtualis campus, equal in stature to mathematics and language arts.

Coming Soon The Quintivium →
From the First Letter to the Corinthians
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 · RSV-CE
Movement III · The Lineage

A Thousand Years of Christian Medicine


Vitae is not an invention. It is the recovery of a Christian tradition in medicine that is older than modern healthcare by a millennium.

Hildegard of Bingen, Choirs of Angels illumination from the Rupertsberg Scivias
XII Century · Rhineland

Hildegard of Bingen

Doctor Ecclesiae

Benedictine abbess, composer, and physician. Her Causae et Curae treats the body theologically and the soul physiologically — a single Christian science.

Manuscript folio from the Trotula corpus, Salernitan school
XI–XII Century · Salerno

Trota of Salerno

Mulier Sapiens

The first named woman physician of the Christian West. Her Trotula corpus taught Europe how to care for mothers and children for five hundred years.

Tacuinum Sanitatis manuscript — medieval regimen of health
XIV–XV Century · Lombardy

Tacuinum Sanitatis

Regimen Vitae

The medieval West's illustrated manual of daily regimen. Health as a rule of life, ordered by the six non-naturals — air, food, motion, sleep, evacuation, passions.

Portrait of Pope St. John Paul II
XX Century · Rome

St. John Paul II

Doctor Corporis

In 129 Wednesday audiences (1979–1984), the Theology of the Body — a modern completion of the Christian philosophy of the human person that anchors Vitae Formation.

This is the tradition we teach and the tradition we practice. Read the full argument →

Movement IV · The Clinical Lead

Meet Prof. Dana Rodriguez, PhD


Prof. Dana Rodriguez, PhD — Prof. Dana PhD magazine feature
Prof. Dana Rodriguez, PhD · PNP-BC

The Mulier Sapiens of the Schola Medica

“She writes what she already practices at the bedside.”

Dana carries a doctorate in nursing, board-certification as a pediatric nurse practitioner, and twenty-one years of consecutive clinical practice — much of it in the first school-based faith-and-health clinic in the United States.

She is the mother of two, the wife of Zeus Rodriguez, and the founder and clinical lead of Vitae Catholica. Every page on this site is, finally, her practice.

PhD · Nursing Science PNP-BC · Pediatric NP 21 Years Practicing Padre Pio Clinic Co-founder Mother of Two
Movement V · The Curriculum

The Quintivium


Twelve volumes, five liberal arts of the person, one argument across K–12: the human body is an imago Dei, and a Christian education must teach it as such.

I. Ars Prima τὸ σῶμα

Body

Anatomy, physiology, and the stewardship of the human frame as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

II. Ars Secunda ὁ νοῦς

Mind

The passions, the intellect, and the Christian ordering of desire — psychology as formation.

III. Ars Tertia ἰθος

Ethics

The cardinal and theological virtues applied to the body: prudence, temperance, justice, courage.

IV. Ars Quarta Θεολογία

Theology

Theology of the Body, Christian anthropology, and the sacramental meaning of the human person.

V. Ars Quinta Πολιτεία

Politics

The body in community — family, parish, hospital, republic. Catholic Social Teaching as applied physiology.

See the Full Curriculum →

As Kingfishers Catch Fire

I say móre: the just man justices; Keeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;   Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —   Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his To the Father through the features of men's faces.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ · c. 1877 ✠ Click for Curator's Note
Movement VI · Questions

Common Questions


No. Vitae Catholica is a separate Arizona 501(c)(3) led by Prof. Dana Rodriguez. Virtualis Education Corporation is a Wisconsin nonprofit that runs K–12 online schools in Arizona and Wisconsin. The two organizations partner so that Virtualis families can receive both classical academics and Vitae's telehealth and formation curriculum — but they are legally, financially, and operationally distinct.

The clinic is open and seeing patients nowVitae Health, a Christian pediatric telemedicine practice serving families across Arizona and Wisconsin. The Vitae Formation curriculum and the Quintivium textbook series are in active authoring under Vitae Catholica, Inc. We do not promise a launch date, and we will never pretend the curriculum is ready before it is.

Clean separation between care and charity. Vitae Health is the clinical practice — a DBA of Rodriguez Corporation, which allows it to bill insurance, accept ESA and school-choice funds, and operate with the professional accountability a medical practice requires. Vitae Catholica, Inc. is the Arizona 501(c)(3) that authors and publishes the Quintivium curriculum, the Theology of the Body and Natural Family Planning resources, and the rest of the school-of-health mission. Fees for clinical care are discussed at intake; the nonprofit does not charge for its educational resources online.

Yes. Arizona ESA and Wisconsin school choice programs recognize Vitae Health clinical and educational services as qualifying educational expenses for eligible students — especially students with special needs, developmental assessments, and chronic-condition management that directly supports learning. See the ESA & Special Needs page for documentation.

Prof. Dana Rodriguez holds a PhD in Nursing, board certifications as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP-BC), and has twenty-one years of consecutive full-time clinical practice — including co-founding the Padre Pio Clinic, the first school-based faith-and-health clinic in the United States. She is the mother of two and the founder and clinical lead of Vitae Catholica. Read her full biography.

Yes. The clinic sees any Christian family in Arizona or Wisconsin, regardless of school. When the Vitae Formation curriculum launches, it will be available both as a required core subject for Virtualis students and as a standalone curriculum for homeschool families and other Christian schools.

Two ways to begin

Book a consultation with the clinic today, or join the waitlist to receive the first volume of the Quintivium the moment it is released.