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Our History-St. John's to Assumption
The Diocese of San Antonio was established in 1874 under the
guidance of its first Bishop, the Most Reverend Anthony Dominic Pellicer. A
system for training seminarians was initiated. Two years later, however, these
early seminarians in San Antonio were transferred to Seguin, where a group of
Jesuits exiled from Mexico had founded Guadalupe College. In 1880, students were
moved to St. Joseph's College in Victoria and continued to study there until
1902. With no seminary in the diocese, students were sent to the newly opened
San Antonio Philosophical and Theological Seminary, now Oblate School of
Theology. Faced with a severe shortage of priests, an average of only one per
every 1,000 square miles in the diocese, and a burgeoning population of
Catholics intensified by the Revolution in Mexico, Bishop John W. Shaw opened a
seminary in his residence in 1915. Five years later, the school was given the
name of St. John's Seminary and was relocated to a site adjacent to Immaculate
Conception Mission. In 1928, two years after San Antonio was elevated to an
Archdiocese, a theology department was added. Priests from the Archdiocese
formed the core of the faculty of the flourishing seminary.
Following the silver jubilee celebration of St. John's Seminary,
newly-installed Archbishop Robert E. Lucey placed the Congregation of the
Missions (Vincentian Fathers) in charge of the seminary. During World War II,
Archbishop Lucey purchased the former Trinity University facility on Woodlawn
Avenue. During the dedication ceremonies for the new facility in 1952, the name
Assumption Seminary was bestowed upon it. In 1967, as part of a major
re-organization movement after the Second Vatican Council, Archdiocesan clergy
once again assumed responsibility for the administration of the school. The
Mission Road facility was closed, and theology students began taking academic
courses at Oblate College of the Southwest in 1969. To prepare students for
bicultural ministry, the Mexican American Cultural Center was opened on the
Woodlawn Avenue campus in 1972. This represented the fulfillment of a
ministerial need first recognized by Bishop John Shaw in 1911: "I have laid down
a rule that for the future no student will be ordained until such time as he can
speak Spanish fluently."
In September of 1987, 1,000 Polish-Texans gathered outside the seminary
chapel for an historic event at Assumption Seminary - an audience with Pope John
Paul II. Seminarians were able to be with the Pope several times during his stay
on the campus. The visit served as an inspiration and a sign of hope for the
entire seminary community.
Dioceses in Arizona, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Virginia, Michigan,
Nevada, North Carolina and Texas currently benefit from the services of the more
than 500 ordained alumni during the 90-plus years of Assumption Seminary's
history. Twelve bishops have emerged from the distinguished ordained priests of
the seminary.
Assumption Seminary continues to respond to the "signs of the times" in
the American Church as it prepares men for creative ministry as Catholic
Priests. By concentrating upon the development of men for Hispanic ministry and
for church leadership through collaboration in ministry, Assumption Seminary is
meeting the challenge of calling forth effective leaders for the church as it
moves into the next millennium.
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