St. Charles Borromeo Seminary
Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania that is under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in the Philadelphia region, the school is named after Charles Borromeo, an Italian saint from the Counter-Reformation. As of April 2022, Auxiliary Bishop Timothy C. Senior was president of Saint Charles. Saint Charles is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. It consists of four divisions: Candidates for the Catholic priesthood pursue  a five-year liberal arts curriculum (which includes a spiritual year), followed by a four-year curriculum within the Theological Seminary. Saint Charles offers the following degrees: History. St. Charles was founded in 1832 by Bishop Francis Kenrick in his home on Fifth Street in Philadelphia. In 1838, it was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to grant academic degrees. Saint Charles later moved to a building on the corner of Fifth and Prune Streets, then to the rectory of Saint Mary's Parish on Fourth Street. It then moved to a facility on the corner of Eighteenth and Race  Streets in Philadelphia. In 1863, then Bishop James F. Wood made the first of three property purchases to create a new Saint Charles campus in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia. In September, 1871, the preparatory college and theology divisions were reunited in Overbrook. In December, 1875, Archbishop Wood dedicated the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception on the campus. Later archbishops of Philadelphia have initiated improvements on the Saint Charles campus. .In 2005, the Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua Research Center was established at the Ryan Memorial Library. The building was completely renovated in the process. The buildings that make up the current  Theology Division. along with the Ryan Memorial Library. stand at the western end of campus. The College Seminary is located at the eastern end. For an eleven-year period, the preparatory division of the seminary was located at Glen Riddle, Pennsylvania. The preparatory program was equivalent to the junior and senior years of and four years of college. The high school program was discontinued in 1968. In 1999, an alumnus praised Saint Charles for its liturgical conservatism compared to some other US seminaries. Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, a former archbishop of Philadelphia, lived at Saint Charles in his retirement. Both Pope  John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger visited Saint Charles, and Pope Francis stayed there during his 2015 visit to Philadelphia. In 2019, Saint Charles sold its Wynnewood property to Main Line Health. Saint Charles was planning to move by 2025 to a new campus at Gwynedd Mercy University in Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania. Enrollment. At the start of the 2020-2021 academic year, Saint Charles added 27 male students. The total enrollment of 156 seminarians was studying for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 12 partner dioceses, and six religious orders. Saint Charles's partner dioceses include: The partner religious congregations and  orders include: