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St. Patrick's Seminary and University (STPSU) in
Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ( ) is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, California, Eas ...
, is a
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
undergraduate and graduate
seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...
whose primary mission is the formation of priests for dioceses in California and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. STPSU was founded in 1898 by San Francisco Archbishop Patrick William Riordan with a faculty from the Sulpician order. In over 100 years, it has formed more than 2,000 priests. STPSU is governed by the Archdiocese of San Francisco in association with its other sponsoring dioceses.


Description

As of 2024, the president-rector of STPSU is Reverend Mark D. Doherty. The board of trustees includes the Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, six bishops from dioceses in California, Washington State, and Hawaii, and other clergy. In 2022, STPSU had an enrollment of 62 men, representing 11 dioceses and religious orders. STPSU is accredited as a graduate educational institution by the
Western Association of Schools and Colleges The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC ( )) provided accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Samoa and Northern ...
and the
Congregation for Catholic Education The Congregation for Catholic Education (Institutes of Study) () was the pontifical congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for: universities, faculties, institutes and higher schools of study, either ecclesial or non-ecclesiastical depende ...
in Rome. STPSU is affiliated with the Bishop White Seminary at
Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) ( ) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, United States. It is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges ...
in Spokane, Washington. Seminarians who are enrolled in the undergraduate formation program at Bishop White can take pre-theology courses at STPSU.


History

Archbishop Patrick William Riordan of San Francisco incorporated St. Patrick's Seminary with the State of California in 1891 with the goal of providing a seminary for students from the Pacific Coast states. The archdiocese received a donation of 86 acres in rural Menlo Park for the project. The seminary was staffed by the Society of Saint Sulpice in France, which provided three French and two American priests. Riordan named the new seminary after Saint Patrick of Armagh to honor the Irish donors to the project. The first rector of the seminary was Reverend Jean-Baptiste Vuibert. On August 24, 1898, St. Patrick's Seminary was dedicated by Riordan, joined by Bishops George Montgomery of Los Angeles and Thomas Grace of Sacramento, along with more than 100 clergy. On September 20, 1898, the seminary received 31 high school students and three college-level students. At that time, the seminary program was 12 years of study, including high school, undergraduate college and graduate studies. Riordan presided over the first commencement exercises at St. Patrick's on May 31, 1899. As St. Patrick's continued to grow, the archdiocese established a department of philosophy with six students. In 1903, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, a religious order based in
Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...
,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, sent a contingent of nuns to Menlo Park to take care of the domestic services, such as cooking, laundry and cleaning, at St. Patrick's. St. Patrick's was severely damaged in the
1906 San Francisco Earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
. However, it remained open and the damage was repaired by 1909. Due to increased enrollment, the archdiocese opened St. Joseph's College in 1924 in Mountain View, California. Seminarians spent their first six years at St. Joseph's, then studied philosophy and theology at St. Patrick's. By the 1950s, STPSU was a highly regimented organization. Seminarians had only two-and-a-half hours of free time, newspapers were forbidden, and TV and radio were very limited. Seminarians could only leave the campus on Thursday afternoons with permission. The curriculum was also strictly regulated. Seminarians were supposed to remain silent except during their free time. By the early 1960s, a large number of seminarians and a few faculty started pushing for changes in the rules and an update of the curriculum. With the arrival of Reverend Paul Purta as rector in 1964, the seminary started liberalizing. St. Joseph's College closed in 1991; its buildings had been irreparably damaged in the
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, PST, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred at the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz Cou ...
. STPSU became the only seminary program for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. In 1994, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family left STPSU due to a lack of personnel; they were replaced with nuns from the Oblates of Jesus the Priest from Mexico. In February 2017, Bishop Patrick Joseph McGrath announced that the Diocese of San Jose would send its seminarians to the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois, instead of to STPSU. At that time, the diocese had 11 seminarians at STPSU. The Sulpicians withdrew its affiliation from STPSU on June 30, 2017. The STPSU board of trustees had recently told them that it wanted to establish a more collaborative administration of the institution. In announcing their departure, the Sulpicians said that the archdiocese was removing them entirely from the STPSU administration. In April 2022, STPSU introduced a preparatory first year of seminary training that it called the Propaedeutic Stage. The seminary was following new guidelines from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. All six men who graduated from STPSU in 2023 with both Master of Divinity and Bachelor of Sacred Theology degrees were ordained in their dioceses.


Programs


Propaedeutic Stage Program

The Propaedeutic Stage Program is a first year program of intellectual formation for seminarians. It combines 12 academic courses with intensive personal development of the participants. STPSU states that the program's aim is to develop an "...intellectual formation of a mystagogical nature..." in the seminarian.


Pre-Theology Program

The Pre-Theology Program is a two-semester program of classes in philosophy, Latin language, and sacred scriptures. It is designed for incoming seminarians with bachelor's degrees but no background in philosophy or any other seminary formation experience.


Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B.)

The
Bachelor of Sacred Theology The Bachelor of Sacred Theology (abbreviated STB) is the first of three ecclesiastical degrees in theology (the second being the Licentiate in Sacred Theology and the third being the Doctorate in Sacred Theology) which are conferred by a number o ...
program is designed for seminarians with bachelor's degrees who have at least 30 credit hours of philosophy coursework and a reading knowledge of Latin. It supplants the Pre-Theology Program for these candidates. The program includes instruction in
Biblical Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic ...
. Seminarians can pursue an S.T.B degree at the same time as a M.Div. degree.


Master of Divinity (M.Div.)

The
Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...
Program is an advanced academic program for seminarians with bachelor's degrees to serve as the final preparation for priests entering parish work. It provides 30 credits of philosophy and 12 credits of religious studies over four-and-a-half years of study. The third year includes a five- to seven-month internship in the seminarian's home diocese.


Master of Arts (Theology)

The Master of Arts (Theology) program is an advanced alternative to the M.Div. degree for seminarians who are planning to teach, write or work in church administration. It requires a bachelor's degree with 12 credit hours of philosophy or religious studies, along with letters of recommendation. The program includes coursework and a master's thesis.


BA Completion Degree Program

The BA Completing Degree Program is for incoming seminarians or lay people who do not have a bachelor's degree. It allows them to complete a bachelor's degree in philosophy.


Notable alumni or staff

Notable alumni and staff include:Burns, Jeffrey M. ''St Patrick's Seminary, A Centenary History (1898–1998)'' Available at St Patrick's Seminary Archives


References


External links


Seminary rector wants priests who can dialogue, evangelize
(February 3, 2005).
St. Patrick Seminary
official website {{authority control Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco Catholic seminaries in the United States Seminaries and theological colleges in California Universities and colleges in San Mateo County, California Universities and colleges established in 1898 1898 establishments in California Menlo Park, California Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice