Mission Mount St. Mary’s is a Catholic institution of higher education dedicated to liberal learning in the pursuit of truth. Mount St. Mary’s, mindful of its role in the Church’s mission to the world and respectful of the religious liberty of all, affirms the values and beliefs central to the Catholic vision of the person and society, and seeks to deepen understanding of our faith and its practice in just and compassionate engagement with the world. In order to enable individuals to understand and to challenge or embrace the cultural forces operating on them, Mount St. Mary’s in all its curricular and co-curricular programs encourages each student to undertake free and rigorous inquiry leading to a reflective and creative understanding of the traditions that shape the communities in which we live. Mount St. Mary’s strives to graduate men and women who cultivate a mature spiritual life, who live by high intellectual and moral standards, who respect the dignity of other persons, who see and seek to resolve the problems facing humanity, and who commit themselves to live as responsible citizens. |
Mount St. Mary’s University: A Proud History
With a letter of introduction from Lafayette, Father DuBois came to America in 1791 to escape the French Revolution. He landed at Norfolk, Va., and was received by Patrick Henry, James Monroe and other American patriots. He immediately made himself subject to the only bishop in the United States at the time, the Most Rev. John Carroll of Baltimore, and continued his spiritual labors in the vicinity of Norfolk until 1792, when he was transferred to a pastorate in Frederick, Md. Among his missions were the church in Emmitsburg and the chapel maintained by the Elder family, who, to escape religious persecution, had left southern Maryland in 1728 and settled in the area about three miles south of Emmitsburg, which they named Saint Mary’s Mount. Soon after his arrival, Father DuBois opened his first school for the children in the neighborhood and later accommodated boarding students who sought admission. In 1805, when the congregation outgrew the little chapel in the Elder homestead, Father DuBois bought land, built a church and purchased 64 acres of land to begin construction of a college. Atthe end of the first school year in 1809, the student body numbered 50 young men. Thus began the actual academic organization of Mount St. Mary’s University. The institution was dedicated to the honor of the Mother of God, for whom Father DuBois always cherished a special devotion, and to memorialize the name of Saint Mary’s Mount, which had been given to the locality by the early settlers. In 1830 the college received its first charter from the legislature of the state of Maryland. The charter was revised in 1838 and has been amended several times since that date. Mount St. Mary’s Seminary was established by Father John DuBois at the same time that he founded the college, and the history of this combined institution is closely interwoven with the history of the Catholic Church in the United States after the establishment of the American hierarchy. Numbered among the sons of the seminary are the first American cardinal, John Cardinal McCloskey of New York, Archbishops Hughes, Purcell, Elder, Corrigan and Seton, and many bishops and priests. In 1972, the college opened its doors to its first female students; in 2004, the college became a university; in 2008, the university celebrated its 200th birthday; and in July of 2009 instituted a College of Liberal Arts, School of Business, School of Education and Human Services and a School of Mathematics and Natural Science. |
