Issue date: September 16, 1998

Marking a century: St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park begins a year of centennial celebration

Priests of the Sulpician order were those chosen by Archbishop Patrick Riordan more than 100 years ago to travel West to the new seminary and train native-born young men to become parish priests. Previously, most priests were brought to western parishes from Europe, especially Ireland.

Although other seminaries were founded by religious orders, today St. Patrick's Seminary remains only one of two seminaries in California (the other is in Camarillo) for the education of men to become parish priests.

Although Menlo Park was a sleepy village when Archbishop Riordan began planning the seminary more than a century ago, it was also home to wealthy Catholic families who moved down from San Francisco during the summer months to escape the city's foggy weather. As the Donohoe family donated land to build nearby Sacred Heart Convent, Kate Johnson gave Archbishop Riordan 88 acres in Menlo Park to erect a seminary. The archbishop also raised an endowment of $300,000 through donations of $50,000 each from six families.

Charles Devlin, who also built Sacred Heart Convent, was hired as architect. He completed his drawings by the end of 1891. By 1898 with two-thirds of the imposing red brick building of French Second Empire style with Romanesque detail completed, including the west wing, administration wing, dining hall, kitchen and power house, the seminary was opened.

Archbishop Riordon named the seminary St. Patrick's as a tribute to the many Irish clergy and Irish benefactors who supported the project.

Although not Catholic, Senator and Mrs. Leland Stanford were also benefactors of the seminary. The Stanfords built a pipeline to carry water from Stanford across Palo Alto and San Francisquito Creek to the seminary, signing an agreement granting up to 50,000 gallons of water per day to the new building. Mrs. Stanford also gave the marble archway atop the front stairs at the seminary's main entrance.

Seminary is dedicated

On August 24, 1898, Archbishop Riordan and 100 other priests gathered for the dedication of the building. A month later, 31 young men began 12 years of study.

In those early years, all 12 years of the seminary program, including high school, were spent at St. Patrick's. In 1924 the high school studies moved to St. Joseph's Seminary in Mountain View, which was closed in 1989 after the Loma Prieta earthquake. St. Patrick's Seminary serves solely as the School of Theology, a six-year program preparing men immediately for pastoral ministry. St. Patrick's graduates have gone on to serve parishes throughout the West as well as to dominate the church hierarchy: 33 of its graduates became bishops or archbishops, with one, Archbishop Timothy Manning of Los Angeles, becoming a cardinal.

According to "St. Patrick's Seminary: Centenary History," published by Jeffrey Burns, archivist for the San Francisco Archdiocese, life was strict for seminarians in the early days. They lived by "The Rule."

One of the strictest disciplinarians was the seminary's second superior, the Rev. Henri A. Ayriahac, known as "the Boss," who served as rector from 1904 to 1930. Under his regime, and actually until 1960, the seminarians were cut off from the outside world.

The campus was closed. Families were allowed to visit only one Sunday afternoon a month. The young seminarians, in their early teens, lived in dormitories of 25 to 30. No newspapers (except for the sports page) or magazines were permitted. Seminarians were allowed to listen only to the Catholic Hour on radio and later to Bishop Fulton J. Sheen on television.

The seminary day began at 5:25 a.m. and included attending two Masses. Lights out was 9:30 p.m. after evening prayers. Seminarians wore black cassocks, Roman collars and black birettas (a square hat with a pompom on top) to class.

Sports were important, however. There were leagues for football, basketball, baseball and softball, as well as swim and track meets. The Mission Society sponsored an annual play with seminarians taking roles, including a take off of "My Fair Lady" in 1963, directed by present rector Gerald Coleman.

Somehow, the strict rules drew the seminarians together and they developed an esprit de corps that kindled fast friendships, not unlike that among men who have been in battle together.

The quiet orderly rule of seminary life ended drastically during the 1960s, according to Mr. Burns. "Students who entered St. Patrick's in the early 1960s were caught in a whirlwind of change," he says. "The calls for change and renewal exploded with the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, which seemed to support the students' call for change. Simultaneously, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war gave ... intensity to the student movement."

Change did eventually happen within the seminary. Rules were relaxed: cassocks became optional, seminarians could have cars and watch television. Rector Paul Purta believed the seminarians' isolation was too great. Later changes eliminated morning and night prayers, even attendance at Mass wasn't mandatory. The idea was you should attend because you wanted to, not because you had to. It was all upsetting to the older priest-alumni, who had lived by "The Rule."

Student unrest at seminary

Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken also became upset in 1968 when students investigating race relations in San Francisco issued a paper known as the "Little Kerner Report", which said the city was ripe for a race riot. Mayor Joseph Alioto suggested the students would be better off staying at the seminary to study and pray, according to Mr. Burns.

Seminarians also took part in anti-war protests, even threatening to strike over the killing of four students at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard.

In 1973 the social traumas of the 1960s had played themselves out and a new faculty and new rector arrived "to settle the place down." Gradually structure returned to seminary life, says Mr. Burns.

Life has not been static at St. Patrick's, however, and the academic program has been invigorated and diversified. A program where the student would spend a year in a parish between his second and third year of studies was added. Women were introduced into the faculty in 1974. Most important, according to Mr. Burns, is the development of a professionally active faculty. He says today almost all full-time faculty members have doctorates and are the most published seminary faculty in the United States.

In 1988 Father Gerald Coleman, an alumnus of St. Patrick's (class of 1968) became rector. Revamping the spiritual program, he once more required daily prayers and attendance at Mass. He also restored the practice of having a personal spiritual director for each student.

Father Coleman notes how today's seminarian differs from those 14-year-olds who entered "the sem" so long ago. The average age of a student is now 32. Another big difference is the ethnic diversity. The Irish no longer predominate. Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander students now make up 51 percent of the student population.

Today's students must be college graduates to enter the seminary and many have had careers in the outside world.

While today's seminarians are older and wiser, there are also far fewer of them. Only 12 priests were graduated from the seminary last year; however, this is turning around, says Father Coleman.

This year's entering class has 35 new students. "This is the highest new enrollment we've had in 10 years," says Father Coleman. There are now a total of 70 seminarians on campus.

Increase in vocations

The increase in vocations is largely due to the work of the Rev. James Oberle, vice rector and director of recruitment at St. Patrick's, according to Father Coleman. Father Oberle visits parishes throughout the West and conducts a yearly discernment weekend where prospective students spend a few days at the seminary to see what it's like. Since a seminarian will return to his native diocese to serve, the diocese pays his $20,000 a year tuition.

Prospective students are carefully screened, first in their diocese, then by the seminary, thus going through two batteries of tests and two sets of applications.

Prolonged court battle

"I never want to go through that again," says Father Coleman, recalling the bitter struggle to sell 43 acres of seminary land for a housing development. First proposed in 1988-89, the development spurred a battle between the seminary and nearby residents who did not want the property developed. It went on for seven years until 1995, when the courts decreed St. Patrick's would be allowed to go ahead with the sale.

Selling the land was necessary, seminary officials said, as the seminary was running deeply in the red. "Our land is our only resource," said Father Coleman at the time.

Oak Leaf Associates bought 43 acres of seminary land for $22 million. The seminary retains 42 acres.

The endowment gave St. Patrick's enough money to make capital improvements, which are now underway. Students' rooms are being renovated, with private baths added for each room. "We're making the rooms suitable for adult living," says Father Coleman. There are also plans to double the size of the McKeon Library, which was opened in 1968 in the old Theology wing basement.

"I'm desperately looking for a donor for the library," says Father Coleman with a smile. The library was named for the late Rev. Thomas McKeon, pastor of Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park from 1934 to 1963.

While St. Patrick's suffered devastating damage in the 1906 earthquake and was rebuilt, there was only minor damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. However, structural repairs are being made to bring the brick structure up to modern-day code.

President/rector of St. Patrick's seminary for 10 years, Father Gerald Coleman was born and raised in San Francisco. Although he has never served as a parish priest, Father Coleman has conducted Sunday Mass at St. Pius Church in Redwood City for the past 30 years.

As president/rector of the seminary, Father Coleman was elected for a first term of six years, then re-elected in three-year increments. "Then they can say enough," he says.

Each year he is evaluated by the archbishop, the Board of Regents, the faculty and the students.

Remembering the strict old days at the seminary, he says with a laugh, "I can't imagine ever critiquing the rector when I was a student here."



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