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Sacred Heart Mission House is founded in Girard, Pennsylvania

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Early in 1912 Rev. Franz de Lange, SVD, set out to locate an appropriate site for a new foundation. Eventually a farm was shown to him that contained a homestead and a barn. Shortly after taking over the house, de Lange departed for Techny, leaving Father Janser and brothers Placidus and Peter to ready the property for the first high school seminarians. He promised to send additional men to assist them shortly. A few days after de Lange’s departure, William Benz, the first seminarian, arrived and promptly assumed the role of chief cook, errand boy and laundry man. A week later three Holy Spirit Sisters arrived. On October 4, 1912, the school began with seven seminarians. The living conditions were difficult; the priests, brothers, and seminarians were all crowded together.
In 1916, classes at the mission seminary were temporarily suspended and the seminarians were transferred to Techny to allow for the construction of a larger seminary building. In 1917, after Rev. Adolph Burgmer, SVD, provincial superior, had repeatedly scrutinized the plans, permission was given to proceed with the construction. The new Sacred Heart Mission Seminary was solemnly dedicated on September 8, 1918, only six years after the humble beginning in a crowded farmhouse. In 1921, an additional 145 acres of land on the opposite side of Highway 20 was bought for farming and cattle raising.

The work of the brothers, priests, and sisters bore its first fruits when, on June 23, 1924, the first commencement exercise was held for the graduates of the four year high school. Christian Baker and Anthony May, who both later reached the missionary priesthood in the Society, were among the first four graduates. During its best years, the seminary at Girard boasted 192 students in its four-year high school.

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 central college and novitiate. From 1934 to 1941, Sacred Heart Seminary served the entire Society in America as a central college.

In the mid-1960s, amid the dramatic social and attitudinal shifts occurring in America, the running of high school seminaries was no longer deemed an effective manner of preparing young men for the priesthood and religious life. It happened then that the students and some staff members moved to the diocesan high school seminary, St. Mark’s in Erie. With the departure of the students, the Sacred Heart Seminary buildings served as the administrative and financial center for the boys and SVD teachers at St. Mark Seminary. Meanwhile, the community took up residence in the Mission Manor situated across the highway from the seminary site. Rev. Gilbert Gawlik, SVD, the praeses, initially sought a buyer for the building; but after the vandalism on the seminary building, he was given the unhappy task of seeing to the building’s demolition and the moving of the bodies in the cemetery to Techny in 1988.

In April 2005, the board of trustees of Mercyhurst College authorized the purchase of 400 acres in Girard from the Society with the intention of developing Mercyhurst West, a two-year college. However, after the sale was completed, a change of administration brought the development plan of the college to a halt and the property has 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. Timeline Society of the Divine Word Chicago Province Archives