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Sacred Heart Seminary opens in Girard, Pennsylvania

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Early in 1912 Rev. Franz de Lange SVD, then provincial superior, set out to locate an appropriate site for a new foundation. Interest in the new SVD seminary at Techny had demonstrated that the United States could support another high school seminary east of Illinois. After several aborted attempts in New York, de Lange encountered a farm in Girard, PA, just outside the city of Erie, that had belonged to former US congressman William C. Culbertson. One month later, in May 1912, the Girard property was purchased.
 
Shortly after the purchase Fr. de Lange departed for Techny, leaving SVD members Rev. Peter Janser and Brothers Placidus and Peter to ready the property for seminarians. A few days after Father de Lange’s departure, William Benz, the first seminarian, arrived and promptly assumed the role of chief cook, errand boy, and laundry man, and on October 4, 1912 school began with six additional seminarians. The living conditions were difficult, with the priests, Brothers, and seminarians crowded together in the small home.

In 1916, classes at the mission seminary were temporarily suspended and construction of a larger seminary building began. The new Sacred Heart Mission Seminary was solemnly dedicated on September 8, 1918, only six years after the humble beginning in a crowded farmhouse. The work of the community at Girard bore its first fruits when, on June 23, 1924, its first commencement exercise was held. Among the four in the first graduating class were Christian Baker and Anthony May, who were eventually ordained as members of the Society. That same month, construction began on an addition to the Girard seminary building completed only six years prior, a testament to the early success of the SVDs’ work there. Completed in 1926, the new wing even included a swimming pool, a rarity for a high school seminary at that time. Another small addition two years later increased enrollments even more.

In 1940, the North American Province was divided into three provinces: Western, Eastern, and Southern. The Eastern Province was headquartered at Girard and its first Provincial Superior was Rev. Francis Humel SVD. This reorganization provided for a common scholasticate and novitiate and, for the time being, a two-year college at Girard. From 1934 to 1941, Sacred Heart Seminary served the entire Society in America as a central college. Girard then reverted back to a four-year high school, which at its peak in the post-World War II year boasted 192 students, almost too many for school staff to handle.

By the mid-1960s, amid the dramatic social and attitudinal shifts occurring in America, high school seminaries were deemed by the province as ineffective ways of preparing young men for religious life. In 1968, Girard students and some staff members moved to a diocesan high school seminary, St. Mark’s in Erie. After the departure of the students, the Girard campus still served as an administrative and financial center until the Eastern and Northern Provinces amalgamated in 1985. Unable to locate a buyer for the seminary, it was demolished in 1988. The property has since been returned to nature.



The text of this page is an adapted version of Communities of the Word, "The Girard Story" by Rev. Raymond Quetchenbach SVD

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  1. Exhibit Timeline Society of the Divine Word Chicago Province Archives

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