page_title: Saint John's Seminary (Massachusetts)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Saint John's Seminary (Massachusetts) / History
context_page_description: Saint John's Seminary, located in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, is a Catholic major seminary sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
  Founded in 1884, the seminary has 114 seminarians and approximately 60 lay students, mostly from dioceses in New England.
  The current interim rector is Fr. Stephen E. Salocks, professor of Sacred Scripture.
context_section_description: In 1864, wealthy Boston merchant James Stanworth acquired a farm on a hill in Brighton known as the Hildreth estate. Stanworth suffered losses in the Panic of 1873 and his heirs found he owed substantial debts. Archbishop John Joseph Williams purchased the Hildreth estate and construction of the Boston Ecclesiastical Seminary began in 1881 and was completed in 1884. In 1883, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted a Charter to the Seminary to grant degrees in philosophy and divinity. The Archbishop entrusted the seminary to his former teachers, the Sulpicians. Students began classes on September 22, 1884.  The First rector was John Baptist Hogan.
  The Seminary was incorporated under the laws of Massachusetts in 1892.  In 1911, the Sulpicians withdrew from the seminary at the request of Archbishop William Henry O'Connell, who preferred a diocesan faculty more familiar with local conditions.
  Saint John's Seminary adopted its present name in 1941.
caption: Grounds surrounding seminary
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