Tradition of Education
Historically, Benedictine abbeys around the world have founded high schools, colleges, and universities, with the sponsoring monastic community members serving as staff, teachers, and administrators, in addition to providing a Catholic ministry and formation. Such a long tradition arguably lends itself to what has become almost a natural pursuit and support of higher education within many Benedictine communities. Hosting the Saint John's Preparatory School, Saint John's University, the graduate School of Theology and Seminary, the Liturgical Press, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, and the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, the Saint John’s Abbey campus continues the tradition of Benedictine educational, academic and scholarly excellence.
Since opening Minnesota's third institution of higher education in 1857, and its first Catholic college, Saint John's has ministered to the Church and local community not only as a community of prayer, pastors, and chaplains, but as educators. With the inauguration of the Seminary on the Rothkopp farm, in Saint Cloud. Saint John's has led the intellectual, spiritual, and professional formation and education of local Minnesotans, as well as scholars and religious from across America and around the world.
Saint John’s Preparatory School
Founded in 1857, Saint John’s Preparatory School today holds the distinction as the oldest continuously operating secondary school in Minnesota. Like most schools founded in the 19th century, Prep’s beginnings were decidedly modest. In its first year, Prep enrolled just five young men.
For its first 115 years, the Prep School focused exclusively on the education of young men. Students entered the school in one of two curriculums, preparation for the priesthood or a traditional secondary school program. The pre-seminary curriculum ended in the early 1970s. That change signaled a change in the school’s residential character as well its educational mission. The school began to enroll more day students and in 1973 began to admit young women following the closure of Saint Benedict’s High School in St. Joseph.
Saint John’s Prep remained a traditional high school campus until 1997, when it added 7th and 8th grade students. In 2009, a 6th grade was added and in 2019 a 5th grade pilot program began. Saint John’s Prep today remains a vital part of Saint John’s Abbey, but with independent funding and leadership. In 2019, the school’s Board of Regents appointed the first non-monastic head of school, though oversight is still provided by the Abbot, who serves as Chancellor of the school.
The Prep School’s mission directs it to “educate students for a lifetime of learning, leadership, and service in a global society, celebrating our Catholic Benedictine tradition.” More simply, Prep prepares students for lives of purpose, service, and achievement – focusing on community, integrity, excellence and spiritual growth. In fall 2019, Saint John’s Preparatory School enrolled 281 students from 14 countries and five states in grades 5 through 12.
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Saint John’s University
Founded in 1857, Saint John's University is one of the oldest institutions of education in the Midwest. Set amid 2,700 acres of varied terrain, the Saint John's campus is remarkable in its natural beauty. It includes wetlands, several lakes, an oak savanna, a restored prairie, and hiking trails that wind through an extensive pine and hardwood forest. In addition to its recreational value, the landscape inspires spiritual and artistic reflection and fosters the Benedictine traditions of land stewardship, education and environmental respect.
Saint John's University designs programs to meet the needs and aspirations of young men, emphasizing leadership and a personal development profile that includes intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical development. Its values-based and value-added residential liberal arts education provides the framework for fulfilling lives of disciplined inquiry and leadership in careers devoted to the professions, public life and service to others.
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Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary
In 1857 the Minnesota Territorial Legislature chartered Saint John’s Seminary. In 1883 the State Legislature authorized the school to grant academic degrees and changed the legal title of the school from “Saint John’s Seminary” to Saint John’s University. In 1964 the MA degrees in the graduate program were accredited by North Central; in 1969, the Master of Divinity degree was accredited by the Association of Theological Schools. In 1978, the graduate program and the divinity program were combined as the School of Theology. When the Diocese of Saint Cloud returned the administration of the seminary program to Saint John’s Abbey and University in 1988, the graduate program in theological education and ministry formation became known as “Saint John’s University School of Theology and Seminary.”
Saint John's School of Theology and Seminary educates men and women in the Catholic and Benedictine tradition for ordained and lay ministry, providing them academic, spiritual, pastoral, and professional formation to serve the Church and society and to use their diverse gifts for the transformation of the world.
The School of Theology and Seminary cultivates in its students, faculty, and staff a yearning for the wisdom of the Christian tradition. Listening carefully to sacred texts, asking searching questions of what our ancestors in the faith understood about God, participating in the tried and true worship practices of the past two millennia, praying the psalms and reading the spiritual classics—these practices help us remain in conversation with God and position our students to be heralds of the Gospel and midwives of Christian communities.
To love Wisdom is to strive for communion with God. In the SOT/Sem, we urge one another to pursue Wisdom—an activity that occurs not only in the classroom but also in the oratory, dining room, and recreational areas. As our students embrace this pursuit of Wisdom, they try to become compassionate caregivers and leaders who will draw the best out of the members of their communities.
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The Collegeville Institute
The Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, rooted in Christian tradition, brings together people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives to foster the world’s healing through the power of religious ideas, insight, and practices. Through a balance of research and writing within a community, an atmosphere is created in which diverse traditions, cultures, disciplines, and projects intersect and bring forth fresh and sometimes surprising insights.
The Collegeville Institute’s history is rooted in the rich ecumenical heritage of Saint John’s Abbey and University, a place shaped by the Benedictine tradition of worship and work that predates divisions of the Christian church.
In the late 1950s Saint John’s University added a course in Protestant theology to its curriculum. In a move unusual for that time, the Abbey sent a monk, Kilian McDonnell, to Germany to study at a number of ecumenical institutes and universities, including Trier, Tubingen, Munster, and Heidelberg. Father Kilian’s trip also included research in Paderborn, Geneva, Paris, Oxford, and Edinburgh. Upon his return in the mid-1960s, he developed a vision for an American center of scholarly research to nurture the best of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox theology. This center would be grounded in the Benedictine rhythm of worship and work in community. From Fr. Kilian’s vision, the Collegeville Institute was chartered in 1967 and the first scholars arrived in 1968.
Today, as both the church and world undergo tremendous change, the Institute remains strong in its commitment to unity. Our commitment to ecumenism is marked by openness to new paths to achieve unity as well as eager anticipation of challenging and fruitful conversations surrounding the current shifts in the church and world.
Visit the Collegeville Institute website for more on its history, mission, and current offerings.
The Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML,) located at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, holds the world’s largest archive of manuscript photographs in both microfilm and digital format. HMML identifies manuscript collections around the world that need photographic preservation. HMML’s archives now contain more than 200,000 complete manuscripts, ranging in size from large codices of hundreds of folios to brief documents consisting of just a few leaves.
HMML was founded in 1965 as the “Monastic Microfilm Library” to photograph Benedictine monastic libraries in Austria and Germany. With memories of World War II still vivid, and fearing the outbreak of nuclear war in Europe, the monks of Saint John’s Abbey were worried that Benedictine patrimony would be destroyed. The project quickly spread beyond Benedictine and religious libraries and throughout Europe. A major project began in Ethiopia in the 1970s, and since 2003, HMML has been working also in the Middle East and India. The name has changed over the years to include the name of the Hill family, who provided key support in HMML’s early years, and most recently in 2005 to its current name in recognition of HMML’s care and display of The Saint John’s Bible and the rare book and art collections of Saint John’s University. The name also makes more explicit the fact that HMML photographs not only monastic manuscripts, but every kind of handwritten material that fits its mission.