ST. JOSEPH'S SEMINARY AT 125

FALL 2021

WHERE PRIESTS ARE FORMED

IN MAY 1891, when Archbishop Michael Corrigan laid the cornerstone for St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, Yonkers, it was a major event. Spectators arrived from all over the region by train and steamboat. Parades, complete with marching bands, led spectators on the three-mile trek from the Yonkers wharves to Valentine Hill, where the groundbreaking was to occur. Estimates of the crowd ranged from 40,000 to 100,000. At the time, it was the largest public event in the history of Yonkers.

It was a great show of the strength for the Catholic Church in New York. It was also decidedly chaotic. The field was so thronged that the archbishop could not reach the dais and had to perform the blessing from a distance. An additional 100,000 would-be attendees were reported to have been stranded by inadequate rail service.

Five years later, when the finished seminary was dedicated, organizers played it safe. Attendance was limited to bishops, diocesan clergy and a small number of lay VIPs.  Everything went smoothly and, a few weeks later, classes started for 98 seminarians.
 

ST. JOSEPH'S IN DUNWOODIE was not the first seminary in New York. Beginning in the mid-1830s, the Diocese of New York, which at the time encompassed the entire state, instituted the first in a series of seminaries in Nyack (1834–1837), LaFargeville (1838–1840), Fordham (1840–1859) and Troy (1864–1896). Although the seminary at Troy was quite successful – almost 1,000 priests were formed there in its 32 years of operation – Archbishop Corrigan decided in the 1880s to seek out a location closer to New York City. He found what he was looking for at Dunwoodie, and built the new place to last, using granite quarried on the property to construct an imposing four-story edifice in the neoclassical style. To this day, the seminary remains a gem in an archdiocese filled with architectural and spiritual landmarks.

At the dedication of St. Joseph’s Seminary, 1896. Archbishop Michael Corrigan is in the front row, sixth from left.

The central mission of St. Joseph’s has not changed: to “serve the Church by forming men for the Catholic priesthood.” Previously, New York’s seminaries educated priests for dioceses as far away as Wisconsin and Maine. Today, it mainly prepares seminarians for ordination as diocesan priests in the Archdiocese of New York, the Diocese of Brooklyn  and the Diocese of Rockville Center – though it also welcomes students in formation for the priesthood in other dioceses and for religious congregations such as the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

In addition, St. Joseph’s trains men to become permanent deacons and offers degree programs and continuing education for lay scholars, music directors, clergy and other men and women who wish to pursue advanced studies in many aspects of the faith.
 

IN THE COURSE OF 125 YEARS, the seminary has been overseen by eight archbishops, including seven cardinals, received visits from two popes (John Paul II and Benedict XVI) and graduated thousands of priests. The hallways are lined with historical photos of distinguished visitors and graduating classes. The Renaissance-style chapel is a small masterpiece with a gilded dome and a 1960s Casavant Freres organ. The Archbishop Corrigan library, added in 1953, is a boon to seminarians, authors and ecclesiastical scholars. At the center of all is a cloistered garden, occupying the colonnaded courtyard between the seminary and the library – an oasis of peace and meditation in an already prayerful environment.

 “Thanks to support from the Archdiocese and a great maintenance staff,” says vice rector Fr. William Cleary, “the well-constructed main building continues to serve its purpose.” Guests who visit for lectures are invariably impressed with the dignity and beauty of the place. These are surroundings that inspire prayer and study. For the seminarians, Fr. Cleary notes, there is also a social element: “The dimensions of formation – human, spiritual, pastoral and academic – are joined with a spirit of fraternity. The seminarians enjoy leisure, exercise and opportunities for fraternity when they’re not studying or praying.”

Bishop James Massa and Cardinal Timothy Dolan with lay graduates of St. Joseph’s Seminary and College, 2021.

“St. Joseph’s is a place perfectly suited to its mission,” says Bishop James Massa, rector of the seminary and college. While the number of seminarians today is roughly half what it was 60 years ago – 65 today, versus 123 in 1961 – Bishop Massa sees reason to hope that vocations are starting to climb again. In the meantime, St. Joseph’s has more breathing room in which to share the riches of the institution with non-seminarians in the form of programs and concerts and classes to deepen faith and enable lay ministries. (For a listing of events, click here.)

In other words: It’s been a good first century and a quarter. As for what the next 125 years will bring? We expect great things.
 

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KEEPER OF THE BOOKS

It’s a room you might not find without a guide. Tucked away atop a staircase beside the Corrigan Library at St. Joseph’s Seminary, the Major Edward Bowes Rare Book Room is secured by a thick, insulated door. Inside, carefully arrayed on shelves and tabletops, is a small universe of leather, wood, paper and ink: centuries of Church history and thinking recorded by monks, writers, printers, artists and binders, mostly from Europe.

No one knows more about the books collected here than James Monti – library clerk, scholar, St. Thomas More biographer and co-author of two books on Eucharistic adoration. This room is his special province.

“Our rare books collection provides quite a grand tour of Catholic subject matter,” Monti says. “Theology, biblical studies, spirituality, the lives of the saints, liturgy, the sacraments, sacred music, apologetics, Church history and canon law [are] all well represented.” There are also books by Protestant authors and a Jewish synagogue scroll of the Book of Esther. Most range in age from the 1400s to the 1800s, in a variety of sizes and bindings.

A hand-lettered 15th-century Netherlandish psalter in the Corrigan Library’s rare books room.

“Our oldest book is a manuscript volume dating from 1407,” Monti says. “We also possess one leaf from a Gutenberg Bible. … We have what is the second earliest portable printed Bible, published in 1492, small enough to hold in one hand … [and] a truly gigantic choir book from early 19th century Spain, measuring 30 by 23 inches, with hand-drawn music huge enough for an entire choir to see and sing from.” Some of the books contain remarkable woodcuts, including a late 16th century collection of meditations by the Jesuit Fr. Geronimo Nadal with illustrations whose innovative use of perspective had a major influence on art and science.

Carefully preserved with strict protocols governing how they should be handled, these volumes “are an eloquent expression of our communion with all the generations who have gone before us, professing the same faith that we do,” Monti says.  “The volumes are important both in and of themselves and in what they can tell us about those who have owned them and read them across the centuries.”