Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/766

 SEMINARY

SEMINARY

ordination they must spend three years in a regular seminary.

(.5) United States. — In colonial days, Spanish Jesuits and Franciscans laboured in Florida, Louisi- ana, New Mexico, and California; missionaries from France and Canada were the pioneers in Maine, New York, and the Mississippi \'alley; the Maryland mis- sions, under the jurisdiction of the Vicar Apostohc of Lx)ndon, were in charge of Enghsh Jesuits. When John Carroll was appointed Bishop of Baltimore, one of his first cares was to provide the means for the training of a native clergy. In England, where he went to receive episcopal consecration, he obtained from a friend a generous gift for his future seminary, and he accepted an offer made to him in London, in the name of Father Emer>', superior of St-Sulpice, to send some members of his society to establish a seminary at Baltimore. In his first address to his clergy and people on his return to America, Bishop Carroll mentioned among the duties of his pastoral office the institution of a seminary "for training up ministers for the sanctuarj^ and the services of religion that we may no longer depend on foreign and uncertain coadjutors".

The following year (1791) Father Nagot, with three other Sulpicians "and four students, reached Baltimore and opened St. Marj-'s Seminary in the place where it stands to-dav. In this first American seminary Bishop Carroll ordained, 25 May, 1793, his first priest. Rev. S. Badin, who for over half a century laboured on the missions of Kentucky. The lack of a sufficient number of ecclesiastical students forced the Sulpicians to receive lay students also, even Protestants, so that St. Mary's became a mixed col- lege and, until the classical department was closed in 1852, had but few seminarians. In order to foster and preserve ecclesiastical vocations. Father Nagot opened (1807) at Pigeon Hill, Pennsylvania, a pre- paratory- seminar>- which was the following year trans- ferred to Mount St. Mary's, but this institution soon became (like St. Mary's at Baltimore), and has re- mained to this day (1911), a mixed college with a theo- logical seminarj', the students of which help in carr>'- ing on the work of the collegiate department. A more successful attempt to have a purely preparatory seminarj' was made by the Sulpicians in the founda- tion of St. Charles's College; opened in 1848, it has always been destined exclusively for aspirants to the priesthood.

As new dioceses were created, the first care of the bishops was to provide a clergj'. Shortly after their consecration, the bi.shops usually went to Europe to re- cruit priests, while at home they spared no pains to train a native clergj'. Bishop Flaget went to Bards- town in 1811 with "three students, the nucleus of St. Thomas's Seminary which for half a century was the nursery of many pioneer priests and bishops of the West. It was closed in 1869. Seminaries were like- wLse established by : Bishop England at Charleston (1822); Bishop Dubourg at St. Louis (1818); Bishop Fenwick at Cincinnati (1829); Bishoj) Fcnwick at Boston (1829); Bishop Kenrick at Phihulclpliia (1832) ; Bishop Dubois at New York (1832;; liishoj) Blanc at New Orlcan-s (1838j; Bishop 0'Con,nor at Pittsburg (1844); Bishop Whelan at Richmond (1842) and Wheeling (185j; Bishop Henni at Milwaukee (1846); Bishop Ix-febre at Detroit (1846); Bishop Timon at Buffalo (1847); Bishop Rappe at Clevehuid (1849); Bishop Ixjras at Dubuque (1849). As a rule these seminaries were begun in or near the bishop's house, and often with the Ijishop as the chief instructor. The more advanced students helped to instruct the others, and all took part in the services of the cathedral. Their education, like that given to priests in the Early Church, was individual and practical; their intellec- tual training may have been somewhat deficient, but their priestly character was moulded by daily inter-

course with the self-sacrificing pioneer bishops and priests.

Most of those imperfectly organized seminaries, after doing good service in their day, have long ceased to exist, while a few have been transformed into mod- ern institutions. The diocesan seminary of New York was transferred (1836) from Nyack to Lafargeville, in the Thousand Islands, and later on to Fordham (1840). In 1864 a seminary was opened at Troy for the provinces of New Y'ork and Boston; the Tatter established its own seminarj^ in 1884, and in 1897 the New Y'ork seminary was transferred to its present location at Dunwoodie. The theological seminary- at Philadelphia, which commenced with five students in the upper rooms of Bisliop Kenrick's residence, was after various vicissitudes transferred in 1865 to its actual site at Overbrook, where the preparatory- semi- nar}^ opened at Glen Riddle in 1859 was also located in 1871. The Seminary of St. Francis, Milwaukee, started in 1846 with seven students in a wooden building attached to Bishop Henni's house, was through the efforts of Dr. Salzmann removed to the present building, w-hich was dedicated in 1856. In San Francisco, after several unsuccessful attempts under Bishop Amat and Archbishop Alemany, a pre- paratory seminary was opened by Archbishop Riordan in 1896; to this was soon added a theological depart- ment. The St. Paul Seminaiy, opened by Arch- bishop Ireland in 1894-95, has done excellent service in educating priests for many of the western dioceses.

Among the leaders in the development of ecclesias- tical education in America the late Bishop MacQuaid deserves a prominent place. He was the first presi- dent of Set on Hall College (1856), and later on as Bishop of Rochester he established the preparatory Seminary of St. Andrew, 1871, and the theological Seminary of St. Bernard. The latter, which opened in 1893 with thirty-nine students, numbers now over two hundred from various dioceses. The Josc^phi- num, founded at Columbus (1875) and placed under the immediate direction of Propaganda (1892), pro- vides a free and complete course for priests destined for the American missions, especially in German- speaking congregations. The Polish college and seminary at Detroit has been established to meet the special needs of Polish Catholics in the United States.

Religious orders had their full share in this growth of seminaries. The Vincent ians, who have alwaj^s considered the training of the clergy as an essen- tial part of their work, opened the seminary at St. Louis (1816) which has been under their care ever since. They also conducted the seminary of New Orleans from 1838 until its supj^rcssion. They founded Niagara (1867), which has been raised to the rank of a university and maintains an important theological department. P'or ten years they were in charge of the seminary at Philadcliiliia. They have directed the diocesan seminary at Brooklyn from the beginning, and they have recently opened a theo- logical seminary at Denver. The Sulpicians, a society of secular priests founded esijecially for training the clerg}', besides their own theological and preparatory seminary in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, also opened and directed for some years the diocesan seminaries of Boston and New York (Dunwoodie). They have also been in charge of the seininarj- of San Francisco since its inception. The Benetlictines, in keeping with the tradition of their early monastic schools, have trained students for ihv. diocesan ])riest- hood along with the members of their or(l(>r at St Vincent's, Pennsylvania (1846), St. Meinrad's, Indiana (1857), and Belmont, North Carolina (1878). The Franciscans have a theological seminary connected with their college at Allegany, New Y'ork (1859). The Oblates have recently (1903) opened a theological seminary at San Antonio, Texas. In their colleges all over the country the Jesuit Fathers have given to