page_title: Saint Leo University
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Saint Leo University / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Saint Leo University's main campus in St. Leo, Florida.
context_page_description: Saint Leo University is a private Roman Catholic liberal arts university in St. Leo, Florida. It was established in 1889. The university is associated with the Holy Name Monastery, a Benedictine convent, and Saint Leo Abbey, a Benedictine monastery. The university and the abbey are both named for Pope Leo the Great, bishop of Rome from 440 to 461. The name also honors Leo XIII, who was Pope at the time, and Leo Haid, then abbot of Maryhelp Abbey in North Carolina, now Belmont Abbey, who participated in founding the university and served as its first president.
  The first Roman Catholic college in Florida, Saint Leo is one of the five largest Catholic colleges in the United States. It enrolls students at the traditional University Campus, at more than 40 education centers and offices, and through its Center for Online Learning. University-wide, Saint Leo educates students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. territories, and more than 80 countries. As of Spring 2017, total enrollment was 16,207 students, with 2,088 of those at University Campus.
context_section_description: Saint Leo traces its history to August 10, 1881, when Edmund F. Dunne, a former chief justice of the Arizona Territory, gained control of 100,000 acres in Florida. He established a Roman Catholic colony in an area that is now the city of San Antonio and the town of St. Leo.
  To accommodate a number of German-speaking colonists, Bishop John Moore of the Diocese of St. Augustine wrote the abbot of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to request a German-speaking priest. That request led to the Benedictine monks first arriving in the area. In 1888, Saint Vincent Archabbey transferred control of the colony to Mary Help of Christians Abbey (commonly called Maryhelp) in Belmont, North Carolina.
  In February 1889, Abbot Leo Haid, OSB, of Maryhelp Abbey accepted a gift from Edmund Dunne of 36 acres on Lake Jovita for the founding of a Benedictine College. That same month, Benedictine nuns arrived from Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
  On March 11, 1889, they founded Holy Name Monastery. Saint Leo College and Saint Leo Abbey were founded on June 4, 1889. St. Leo's College, the original name of the institution, opened its doors on September 14, 1890. The first student to arrive was 12 years old. He and six others were enrolled on the first day, and the student body grew to 32 for the 1890-1891 school year. The first five students graduated in June 1893 with Master of Accounts degrees.
  In 1898, before it was legal in Florida for black and white students to attend school together, Saint Leo enrolled a black student—Rudolph Antorcha from Cuba. Today, he and the welcoming Benedictines are honored with a sculpture titled A Spirit of Belonging, which was dedicated at University Campus in 2013.
  Over the years, the school went through a series of varying focuses and name changes: St. Leo's College initially, then St. Leo Military College (1890–1903), St. Leo College (1903–17), St. Leo College Preparatory School (1917–18), Saint Leo College (1918–20), St. Leo College High School (1920–23), St. Leo Academy (1923–27), Benedictine High School (1927–29), Saint Leo College Preparatory School (1929–64), Saint Leo College (1959–99), and finally Saint Leo University (1999–present). During that time, it served as a military college within three different periods.
  Saint Leo College Preparatory School operated from 1929 to 1964. In addition, Saint Leo returned to its college roots in 1959 and opened a junior college, with the first junior college graduates earning their associate degrees in 1961. The monks managed both the junior college and the prep school from 1959-64. The Saint Leo College Prep School athletic teams were known as the Lions, and their colors were purple and gold. The Saint Leo College teams were known as the Monarchs, using green and gold as colors. In 1999, the Saint Leo athletic teams readopted the Lions name.
  In 2011, Saint Leo University created an anthropomorphic lion mascot named Fritz. The name was a reference to a series Saint Bernard dogs bearing that name, all owned by Father Charles Mohr, who served as the first abbot of Saint Leo Abbey from 1902-31.
  The Benedictine sisters at Holy Name Monastery, its neighboring community, closed their Holy Name Academy in 1963 and assisted Saint Leo, which transitioned to a four-year program.
  Saint Leo College conferred its first bachelor's degree on April 23, 1967, on 51 men and 13 women. The college was accredited by the Southern Educational Association that November, retroactive to the degree date.
  In 1973, the college responded to requests from the armed services to offer degree programs on U.S. military bases. More education centers followed—on military bases, on community college campuses, and at stand-alone facilities—in seven states.
  In 1998, the university's Center for Online Learning was created, allowing students to take classes online from any location. 
  Since 1959, when the junior college was started, Saint Leo has had nine presidents: 
  John I. Leonard (1959–61)
  Rev. Stephen Hermann, OSB (1961–68)
  Anthony W. Zaitz (1968–70)
  Rev. Marion Bowman, OSB (1970–71)
  Thomas B. Sout
caption: Saint Francis Hall on University's main campus in St. Leo, Florida
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