After 118 years of history, Sulpicians bid farewell to St. Patrick's Seminary & University in California

BALTIMORE, Md. — On Saturday, May 13, 2017 the Society of St. Sulpice, Province of the United States (commonly known as the Sulpicians) hosted a farewell celebration that included a prayer service and luncheon to officially end their 118-year history of staffing at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University. More than 500 alumni, friends and supporters of the seminary attended the event. The celebrant for the prayer service was Rev. Gladstone Stevens, PSS, President-Rector of the seminary and the homilist was the Very Rev. John C. Kemper, PSS, Provincial Superior, US Province.

 Fr. Kemper noted in his reflections the major impact the Sulpicians played in the life of the Catholic Church in northern California and the Pacific Rim over the more than 100 years of staffing St. Patrick’s Seminary. “At St. Patrick’s we have educated Church leaders, both priests and bishops in the Sulpician Tradition. We are proud of these leaders and of our contribution in the region. But now, due to circumstances beyond our control, the Society of St. Sulpice must bid St. Patrick’s Seminary. … Adieu! We wish God’s blessing upon the new faculty and administration as they begin to build on the 118 year foundation built by generations of dedicated Sulpicians.”

 As a parting gift to St. Patrick’s Seminary, the Sulpicians established an endowed the “Sulpician Scholarship” for a needy seminarian from a Mission Diocese attending St. Patrick’s. The current endowment can generate a partial scholarship, but with time and future contributions the corpus will grow.  It is the hope of the Sulpicians that this endowment will become a full year scholarship.  

 Each person attending the Farewell Celebration received “The Life and Times of François-Charles Nagot, Founding Superior of the Sulpicians in the U.S.” a recently published book about the first Sulpician Superior in the United States. The book was written by Fr. Thomas R. Ulshafer, PSS for the 225th Anniversary of the Society of St. Sulpice (1791-2016) in the United States.

Courtesy of the Society of St. Sulpice