 Mount St. Mary's Seminary is the second-oldest Catholic theologate in the United States. Mount St. Mary's was founded in 1808 by Father John DuBois, who had come to America to escape the terror of the French Revolution. Bearing a letter of introduction from Lafayette, whose wife he had once counted among his parishioners, DuBois had come to America in 1791 and settled in Richmond, VA, where he was tutor to Patrick Henry's children while learning English. In 1794, he requested an assignment from the Most Reverend John Carroll of Baltimore, the first Catholic bishop of the new nation, and he was sent to Frederick, MD, with an expanse of frontier territory that included Emmitsburg.
It was near that small town that DuBois built a church, replacing the small chapel maintained by the Elder family, and began educating area children. Soon, he was operating a boarding school. Then, in 1808, the Society of St. Sulpice in Baltimore closed its preparatory seminary in nearby Pennsylvania and transferred the seminarians to Emmitsburg. Their arrival in 1808 is considered the formal beginning of Mount Saint Mary's College and Seminary.
Enrollment soon exceeded 50, and in 1812, DuBois was joined by Father Simon Gabriel Brute, another French emigré priest. Brute remained at the Mount for nearly 25 years, and such was his impact, especially as spiritual director of the Seminary, that he is remembered as the "Angel Guardian of the Mount."
During those early years, the Mount also became closely involved with the efforts of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton to establish a religious order nearby. Her work in education (she is considered the founder of the parochial school system in this country) and in establishing the Sisters of Charity religious order eventually led to her becoming America's first native-born saint.
At the request of Father DuBois, Mother Seton lived on campus until her school was built and she retained a great love for the mountain-side worship site that in time became the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, the oldest replica in this country of the famed French Grotto. In 1826, Father DuBois was named the Third Bishop of New York and left the Mount. In 1830, Father Brute and Father John Purcell, who had become president a year earlier, obtained the first official charter for the Mount from the State of Maryland. In its early years, the Mount provided the Catholic Church with many of its American leaders. The Most Reverend John DuBois was succeeded in New York by Father John Hughes, a Mount graduate who became that diocese's first archbishop and was responsible for the building of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The successor to the Most Reverend John Hughes, Father John McCloskey, also a Mount alumnus, was named the first native-born cardinal in the United States. Alumni have served as first bishops of 15 newly formed dioceses, and in all, 32 U.S. dioceses have been led by at least one bishop from the Mount. This level of influence led to the Mount being characterized as the "Cradle of Bishops."
The Church also was playing a leading role in the expansion of higher education opportunities, and here too, Mountaineers were at the forefront, founding more than 30 other colleges and universities, including Seton Hall, St. John's, Fordham, John Carroll, Dayton, and the North American College in Rome. Father Edward J. Flanagan, another alumnus of the College, founded Boys' Town.
The Mount assumed its present system of governance in 1968, when the governing Priests' Council was replaced by an independent, self-perpetuating Board of Trustees which was vested corporate ownership of the Mount and has both lay and clerical membership.
The last quarter of the 20th century has brought more change to Mount Saint Mary's than any period since its founding. In 1971, the first lay president was installed. The College became co-educational in 1973. Exciting and progressive developments have touched every corner of the Mount including the innovative undergraduate liberal arts program, the highly respected Seminary, the growing graduate programs in business and education, the revered national Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, as well as the campus that serves them all. |
