First American Seminary Founded 1791

Founded in 1791, St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore is the first Catholic seminary established in the United States. For over two hundred years, St. Mary’s has been owned and operated by the Sulpician Fathers, a community of diocesan priests dedicated to the formation of priests. In 1805, St. Mary’s was chartered as a civil university in Maryland, and in 1822, Pope Pius VII established the seminary the country’s first ecclesiastical (pontifical) faculty with the right to grant degrees in the name of the Holy See. The seminary continues to offer the pontifical STB and STL degrees for all qualified students. The original St. Mary’s Seminary was first established in Baltimore on Paca Street. Its historic neo-gothic chapel designed by Maximilian Godefroy remains at the original site. It is open for visitors and is adjacent to the Mother Seton House where St. Elizabeth Ann Seton lived while in Baltimore. In 1929, St. Mary’s Seminary moved to its present location at Roland Park in Baltimore.

(From the seminary website)