St Mary's Seminary in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand, was established in 1850 by New Zealand's first Catholic bishop, Jean Baptiste François Pompallier. It operated until 1869.Good Shepherd College website, ''Our History''
(retrieved 6 December 2011) From his arrival in 1838, Pompallier had worked energetically to train priests locally for his new mission. In April 1850 he returned from a trip to Europe with ten

seminarian 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 clergy ...

s and established a

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 ...

in Auckland to complete their formation.Michael King, ''God's Farthest Outpost: A History Of Catholics In New Zealand'', Penguin Books, Auckland, 1997, p. 73. The completion of the training of the new seminarians was carried out quickly so that within five weeks all but one of them were ordained. The seminary, which he named "St Mary's College", had Pompallier's

Vicar General A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

the Rev. The Reverend (abbreviated as The Revd, The Rev'd or The Rev) is an honorific style given to certain (primarily Western) Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and chur ...

Louis Rozet, S.M., as its first Rector. It was first established on the North Shore of Auckland but was moved across

Waitematā Harbour The Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. The harbour forms the northern and eastern coasts of the Auckland isthmus and is crossed by the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It is matched on the southern side of the city ...

to Ponsonby in 1852. The original seminary site is now occupied by St Joseph's Catholic School. The Seminary survived for 19 years, until Pompallier retired and left New Zealand in 1869. St Mary's Seminary educated at least twenty-four priests, all of them European and some of them already part-trained in Ireland or France. The college also educated many Māori

catechist Catechesis (; from Greek language, Greek: , "instruction by word of mouth", generally "instruction") is basic Christian religious education of children and adults, often from a catechism book. It started as education of Conversion to Christia ...

s, some of whom were encouraged to stay on for training for the priesthood. One, Keremeti Pine from

Ōkaihau Ōkaihau is a small town in the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island, just north of Kaikohe. New Zealand State Highway 1, State Highway 1 passes through Ōkaihau making it fairly busy. Ōkaihau has a primary school (Ōkaihau Primary ...

, was even sent to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, where for three years among

s from Africa and Asia, he spoke Latin and passable Italian. However, no Māori candidate for the priesthood was ordained at this time. The Māori catechists, however, proved to be the backbone of the development of the Catholic faith among the Māori during the remaining decades of the 19th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:St Mary's Seminary Educational institutions established in 1850 Seminaries and theological colleges in New Zealand Catholic universities and colleges in New Zealand Christianity in Auckland Educational institutions disestablished in 1869 Former theological colleges Education in Auckland Defunct universities and colleges in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Auckland 1850 establishments in New Zealand 1869 disestablishments in New Zealand Takapuna

See also

References