On August 24, 1898, San Francisco Archbishop Patrick William Riordan dedicated a new seminary in Menlo Park, California. Bishops George Montgomery of Los Angeles and Thomas Grace of Sacramento joined him, along with more than 100 clergy. Less than a month later, on September 20, the seminary received its first students: 31 high schoolers and three college-level men. St. Patrick's Seminary and University has been forming priests for California and the Pacific Northwest ever since, producing more than 2,000 over its first century.
Archbishop Riordan staffed his new seminary with faculty from the Sulpician order, the Society of Saint-Sulpice, a French Catholic society devoted specifically to the training of priests. The partnership endured for 118 years. The seminary program originally required 12 years of study, encompassing high school, undergraduate college, and graduate work. The Sulpicians guided generations of seminarians through this demanding curriculum, adapting to the liberalizing changes that swept Catholic education after the arrival of Reverend Paul Purta as rector in 1964. The relationship ended on June 30, 2017, when the Sulpicians withdrew, citing the archdiocese's decision to remove them from the seminary's administration.
The seminary's alumni roster reads like a Who's Who of West Coast Catholicism. Two graduates, Timothy Manning and Robert W. McElroy, became cardinals. Dozens more became bishops and archbishops across dioceses from Hawaii to Washington State. The institution has not been without turbulence. In 1994, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family left due to a lack of personnel, replaced by nuns from the Oblates of Jesus the Priest from Mexico. The Sulpicians' departure in 2017 marked the most significant institutional rupture in the seminary's history. Through it all, St. Patrick's has maintained accreditation from both the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome.
In April 2022, St. Patrick's introduced a Propaedeutic Stage, a preparatory first year of seminary training following new guidelines from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The program combines twelve academic courses with intensive personal development, aiming to develop what the seminary calls an intellectual formation of a mystagogical nature. The graduate programs include a Master of Divinity for seminarians preparing for parish work and a Master of Arts in Theology for those planning to teach, write, or work in church administration. As of 2022, the seminary enrolled 62 men representing 11 dioceses and religious orders. All six graduates of the 2023 class, who earned both Master of Divinity and Bachelor of Sacred Theology degrees, were ordained in their home dioceses.
Located at 37.46°N, 122.17°W in Menlo Park, on the San Francisco Peninsula. Palo Alto Airport (KPAO) is approximately 2 miles northeast. The seminary campus is identifiable as a large institutional complex amid the residential neighborhoods of Menlo Park, near the intersection of Middlefield Road and the Caltrain corridor.