The Diocese of San Antonio was established in 1874 under the guidance of its first Bishop, the Most Reverend Anthony Dominic Pellicer. A system for training seminarians was initiated. Two years later, however, these early seminarians in San Antonio were transferred to Seguin, where a group of Jesuits exiled from Mexico had founded Guadalupe College. In 1880, students were moved to St. Joseph’s College in Victoria and continued to study there until 1902. With no seminary in the diocese, students were sent to the newly opened San Antonio Philosophical and Theological Seminary, now Oblate School of Theology. Faced with a severe shortage of priests, an average of only one per every 1,000 square miles in the diocese, and a burgeoning population of Catholics intensified by the Revolution in Mexico, Bishop John W. Shaw opened a seminary in his residence in 1915. Five years later, the school was given the name of St. John’s Seminary and was relocated to a site adjacent to Immaculate Conception Mission. In 1928, two years after San Antonio was elevated to an Archdiocese, a theology department was added. Priests from the Archdiocese formed the core of the faculty of the flourishing seminary.
Assumption Seminary continues to respond to the “signs of the times” in the American Church as it prepares men for creative ministry as Catholic Priests. By concentrating upon the development of men for Hispanic ministry and for church leadership through collaboration in ministry, Assumption Seminary is meeting the challenge of calling forth effective leaders for the church as it moves into the next millennium.
Assumption Seminary Timeline
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Father Pehl
Very Rev. Jeff Pehl, a priest of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, became the next Rector after Bishop’s Cepeda’s appointment to Detroit. Pehl helped the seminary to expand its faculty and board, improve the residence hall for collegians and renovate the main chapel. In anticipation of the Centennial, a committee of alumni worked with Pehl to create a yearlong celebration.
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Lopez Hall
Responding to growing enrollment in the seminary college program the seminary completely remodeled and updated St. Alice Hall. It was re-named Msgr. Jose A. Lopez Hall. An alumnus Msgr. Lopez had served Assumption Seminary the last thirty years of his life until his death in 2011. He was a spiritual, pastoral and intellectual inspiration to many brother priests, seminarians and lay persons.
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Bishop Berg
The thirteenth alumnus appointed to the episcopacy was Most Rev. Stephen Berg, a priest of the Diocese of Fort Worth. He is the Bishop of Pueblo in Colorado.
Our Lady’s Chapel
In 2014, the seminary’s main Chapel underwent dramatic remodeling and beautification. A 37 foot main retablo with two side retablos all covered in gold leaf in mission style were added to complement O’Neil Ford’s unique design of natural light, exposed rock and wood. It was re-named Our Lady’s Chapel. Buscheli Religious Architects designed the retablos and alter furnishings. The interior was done by Morkovsky and Associates and J.C. Stoddard Construction.
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Centennial of St. John/ Assumption Seminary
Mission: Assumption Seminary is a bilingual and multicultural community of priestly formation. This seminary exists for the personal, spiritual, theological and ministerial preparation of diocesan seminarians for the Roman Catholic Church. Assumption Seminary’s goal is to enable Christ-centered men to grow and develop as collaborative and culturally sensitive pastoral leaders committed to the Gospel.
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test Jeff Pehl
Very Rev. Jeff Pehl, a priest of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, became the next Rector after Bishop’s Cepeda’s appointment to Detroit. Pehl helped the seminary to expand its faculty and board, improve the residence hall for collegians and renovate the main chapel. In anticipation of the Centennial, a committee of alumni worked with Pehl to create a yearlong celebration.
