OUR HISTORY
OUR BEGINNINGS
On Saturday, September 21, 2013, the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Philadelphia was born. During the annual meeting with Kiko Argüello in Porto San Giorgio, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput officially welcomed the new Redemptoris Mater Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia by signing the documents for its canonical foundation. In a providential moment, while choosing the Patron Saint for our seminary, Archbishop Chaput drew the relic of his own ancestor, Saint Louis IX. That year, six seminarians were assigned to us by lottery, followed by five more the following year.
FROM 2013 - 2017
The seminary found its first home at St. Barnabas in Southwest Philadelphia. Although it had become home to many seminarians, it became clear that we needed to move to a location that would better accommodate the growing needs of the seminary, as well as the increasing number of vocations.
2017 - PRESENT
In 2017, the seminary relocated to the property of St. Louis, in Yeadon, P.A., a move that also proved providential, as St. Louis had been chosen by lot as the seminary’s patron at its founding in 2013. Since its founding, the formation of the priests at the Redemptoris Mater of Philadelphia has continued in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, reaffirming the Church's missionary calling. While we are incardinated into the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, as a fruit of the Neocatechumenal Way, upon ordination we are open and willing to go anywhere our ordinary sends us.
