Brother Bartholomew Calvano was raised, along with an older sister and younger brother, in an itinerant family, his father being in the Air Force. After his father retired, the family settled in Chesapeake, VA where they are members of the Parish of St. Stephen Martyr. Brother Bartholomew then attended Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where he graduated with a B.A. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry/Mathematics/Computer Science and a minor in Chemistry. For two years before entering the Order of Preachers, he worked with The Brotherhood of Hope in campus ministry at Northeastern University in Boston. “Deeply drawn to contemplation but also recognizing a clear call from God to evangelize, the mixed life of the Order of Preachers, most elegantly expressed by the motto, ‘contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere,’ immediately attracted me.”