The Vincentian Heritage of Saint John's University

St. John's University was founded in 1870 by the Vincentian Community, a Catholic
community of both priests and brothers who have let Jesus Christ shape their
lives in the spirit of their founder Saint Vincent de Paul.

St. Vincent de Paul was a man of great vision. In 16th century France, he was
in the forefront of the Counter-Reformation, pioneering new ways of service
to the poor and reforming the clergy by offering retreats to current priests
and founding seminaries to improve the training of new priests. He was dynamic
in motivating people of different classes in France to join together to alleviate
suffering; he created religious communities for men and women to, in his words
"love God with the strength of your arms and the sweat of your brow."
Read a
detailed account of the life of Saint Vincent de Paul.

His vision continues today in Vincentian communities worldwide. The Vincentian
Family is an international family composed of many groups and organizations
around the world that have adapted the mission, spirit and rules of St. Vincent
de Paul. There are over 7 million women and men, laity and religious, Catholic
and non-Catholics who honor St. Vincent de Paul as their patron. Among the members
of the Vincentian Family are the Congregation
of the Mission, Daughters
of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the Society
of St. Vincent de Paul, the International
Association of Charity, the Association
of the Miraculous Medal, the Marian
Vincentian Youth, and the Sisters
of Charity. They live in many countries and work, pray, and live in community
in response to the needs of the poor. Vincentians serve the poor in parishes
and social service agencies, work in seminary formation, teach in universities,
provide missions in parishes around the world, and work to develop community
leaders.



Vincentian higher education in America had its start when a small band of Italian
Vincentian (Congregation of the Mission) priests, brothers and seminarians came
to the United States in 1816 to accept Bishop Louis DuBourg's invitation to
evangelize the settlers in the upper-Louisiana Territories and to found a seminary
there. The recently-arrived European Vincentians discovered a need to combine
lay education with seminary education in order to serve as an outreach to the
nascent Catholic Church in America and to help pay the seminarians' education
with the tuition of the lay students.

Later, John Loughlin, the first Bishop of Brooklyn, New York, requested the
establishment of a Catholic college in his diocese "where the youth of
the city might find the advantages of a solid education and where their minds
might receive the moral training necessary to maintain the credit of Catholicity."
Thus in 1870 the College of Saint John the Baptist was born. This institution
evolved into the modern-day Saint John's University.

Today, Vincentian higher education in America is represented by Niagara University,
St. John's University and DePaul University. For the first half of the 20th
century these institutions aimed at fulfilling the Vincentian mission of service
to the poor by providing the young poor the education needed to break the cycle
of poverty. After Vatican II, the Congregation followed the general spirit of
change and modernization and charged the universities to become fully Vincentian
by aiming at 6 major goals:

• Educating the poor and their children, thereby breaking the vicious cycle
  of poverty within family units;


• Educating first-generation college students, thereby enabling new immigrant
  groups and traditionally marginalized populations to enter the mainstream
  in the United States;


• Presenting the Roman Catholic tradition as an interpretive framework and
  spiritual support for students= professional and personal lives, while respecting
  and being enriched by the great religious diversity represented in the university
  communities;


• Instilling in all students an affective and effective love for those in
  need;


• Researching poverty in society and looking for creative ways to moderate
  this social evil;


• Offering the universities' considerable resources to other local, national
  and international agencies and community groups with complementary goals.

Find
out more about Vincentian higher education in America.

Saint John's University believes that higher education is about more than getting
a job; it’s about learning how to make a difference in the world. Consequently,
St. Johns' curriculum encompasses both academic study and direct experience
in helping those less fortunate. One example is their "academic centers
of excellence" which emphasize research into the mechanisms of sustainable
global development and social justice. In addition, St. John's actively involves
students in volunteering, mentoring and service learning programs. Read
more about St. John's University's Vincentian heritage.