Southern Benedictine College was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

college and

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

Cullman, Alabama Cullman is the largest city and county seat of Cullman County, Alabama, United States. It is located along Interstate 65, about north of Birmingham and about south of Huntsville. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 14,775, with an ...

. Previously called Saint Bernard College, it closed in 1979. Since then, the campus has since been repurposed into St. Bernard Preparatory School by the religious community of Benedictine monks.

History

Saint Bernard College began conferring degrees in 1893 as a

college preparatory A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher education ...

school. Between 1948 and 1953, the board of trustees worked on expanding the institution to four-year-college status. The first college class graduated in 1955. A year later, Saint Bernard College received its accreditation as a senior college from the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priv ...

and operated until 1979. It served the secondary-educational needs of hundreds in the

baby-boom generation Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. T ...

. Many students arriving from the

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;

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;

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;

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

;

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; and

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

. As part of the switch to tertiary education, the college preparatory program was discontinued in 1962. At that time, the college had a champion judo team. The school's

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

team was ranked nationally in the NAIA Men's Championship in 1971. The soccer teams of the 1960s were highly-competitive and gained national ranking in NAIA especially after recruiting

Neil O'Donoghue Cornelius Joseph Connor Dennis "Neil" O'Donoghue (born 18 January 1953) is a former American football placekicker. He played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1977 to 1985 with the Buffalo Bills, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the St. ...

in 1972, who later played football for

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

and in the

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. In 1976, the all-male St. Bernard College merged with the all-female Cullman College and the combined institution was named Southern Benedictine College, but Southern Benedictine lasted for only three years and officially closed on May 13, 1979. St. Bernard Preparatory School was reopened in 1984 on the Southern Benedictine campus and currently has a very promising private high school and seminary. The prep school received its accreditation in 1995.

References

External links

Benedictine Sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery

St. Bernard Preparatory School

St. Bernard Abbey

"City of Little Jerusalem Constructed by Monk"
''Popular Mechanics'', August 1933 {{authority control Defunct private universities and colleges in Alabama Defunct Catholic universities and colleges in the United States Educational institutions disestablished in 1979 Education in Cullman County, Alabama Catholic universities and colleges in Alabama 1893 establishments in Alabama