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Motto | Forward. Always Forward. [1] |
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Type | Private liberal arts college |
Established | 1971 by the merger of Mount St. Scholastica College (1923) and St. Benedict's College (1858) |
Religious affiliation | Catholic (Benedictines) |
Academic affiliations | ACCU, NAICU, CIC |
Endowment | $35.5 million [2] |
President | Stephen D. Minnis |
Dean | Kimberly C. Shankman |
Students | 2,126 (2021–2022) [3] |
Undergraduates | 2,059 |
Postgraduates | 67 |
Location | , , U.S. 39°34′26″N95°06′53″W / 39.5739°N 95.1147°W |
Campus | Rural |
Colors | Black. white and red [4] |
Nickname | Ravens |
Sporting affiliations | NAIA – HAAC |
Website | www |
Benedictine College is a private Benedictine liberal arts college in Atchison, Kansas, United States. It was established in 1971 by the merger of St. Benedict's College (founded 1858) for men and Mount St. Scholastica College (founded 1923) for women. It is located on bluffs overlooking the Missouri River, northwest of Kansas City, Missouri.
Benedictine is one of a number of U.S. Benedictine colleges and is sponsored by St. Benedict's Abbey and Mount St. Scholastica Monastery. The abbey has a current population of 53 monks, while the Mount monastery numbers 147 community members.
Benedictine College celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008. [5] The present-day college was formed in 1971 by the merger of St. Benedict's College, a men's college, and Mount St. Scholastica College, a women's college.
At the request of John Baptist Miège, Vicar Apostolic of Leavenworth, two Benedictine monks arrived in Atchison from Doniphan and opened St. Benedict's College, a boarding school, in 1858. It was named for Benedict of Nursia, founder of modern western monasticism. The mainly classical school curriculum was intended to prepare students for the priesthood. The monks, who had recently arrived in the Kansas Territory, then moved their community to Atchison and founded the present-day St. Benedict's Abbey. It expanded to include commerce subjects to cater to the needs of the local population, which was primarily pioneers and settlers. Over the years the college continued to expand and by 1927 it was an accredited four-year liberal arts college.
In 1863, the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, whose namesake is Benedict of Nursia's twin sister Scholastica, arrived in Atchison and founded St. Scholastica's Academy (now Maur Hill – Mount Academy) for local young women. In 1924, Mount St. Scholastica's Junior College was opened so these young women could continue their tertiary education. It became a senior college in 1932 and was authorized to confer bachelor degrees.
In 1970, Alcuin Hemmen, president of St. Benedict's College, announced that St. Benedict's would become a co-educational college. Mary Noel Walter, president of Mount St. Scholastica College, had been proposing a merger of the two colleges for over a year. Following Alcuin's announcement, Walter organized discussion of a merger. [6] It was agreed upon, and the universities merged on July 1, 1971, to form the current Benedictine College. The separate colleges' corporations remain in existence for scholarships and land ownership purposes [7] and allowed the newly formed college a free 50-year lease of the separate colleges' facilities on their campuses. Benedictine College terminated the lease of the facilities from Mount St. Scholastica College on October 1, 1989, amidst financial hardship. [8] It continues to lease property from St. Benedict's College.
The most popular majors at Benedictine are Business, Education, and Theology. Commerce, teaching, and the faith are historically significant interests of both the college and the Benedictine order. [9]
The School of Business offers bachelor's degrees and an MBA degree. Similarly, the Education Department offers undergraduate licensure programs and a Master of Arts. [10]
The college's theology department grew out of St. Benedict's Abbey School of Theology and is the result of a 2007 shift from a Religious Studies program to a Catholic Theology program. All Theology professors are to have signed the canon-law mandatum [11] as implemented by the U.S. bishops, [12] and to take the oath of fidelity. [13] The National Catholic Register's Catholic Identity College Guide [14] notes that the president has made a public profession of faith and taken the oath of fidelity; the majority of the board of trustees are Catholic and the school's mandatum requirement is public. According to the Cardinal Newman Society's "The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College" guide, [15] the theology department shares the college's institutional commitment to the magisterium of the Catholic Church.
In 2010, Benedictine College added an Engineering Department in which students earn ABET-accredited degrees. [16] The following year, the college added a nursing program dedicated to Mother Teresa of Calcutta who once visited Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison. [17] The college's architecture major, stressing classical styles, debuted in 2016. [18]
The college's Discovery Program gives students the opportunity to create and present original projects in any discipline. In 2010, Discovery Day included 80 presentations featuring the works of 145 students, 40 faculty/staff members, and 18 academic departments; "more than 1800 students have participated in Benedictine’s Discovery Day events since its inception in 1996. In that time, most faculty members and academic departments have taken an active role in sponsoring student projects." [19]
The college offers programs in the performing arts, including theatre, dance, and music. The college features two performance spaces: the Mabee Theatre seats approximately 130 and the O'Malley-McAllister Auditorium seats around 545 people. The Abbey Church and St. Scholastica chapel at Mount St. Scholastica Monastery are also utilized for organ recitals, orchestra, and choral performances.
The college's music department traces its roots to Mount St. Scholastica Academy, now Maur Hill - Mount Academy, when in 1863 the Benedictine sisters were said to have first purchased a house and then a piano. The music department of the college was one of the first cooperative departments between the former two colleges, having been formed in 1964.
Mass is offered to students three times daily in several places, including St. Benedict's Abbey in its Abbey Church, St. Benedict's Church (a parish connected to one of the campus dorms, Elizabeth Hall), and Guadalupe chapel (located in the Abbey Crypt under the main church). The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), a Catholic collegiate leadership apostolate, was founded at Benedictine College by Curtis Martin. Other active religious groups on campus include Communion and Liberation, Pax Christi, Ravens Respect Life, Partners in Prayer (in conjunction with Mount St. Scholastica), Great Adventure Bible Timeline, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Households and Varsity Catholic. [20]
The college hosts pilgrimages to Rome and the Holy Land as well as local pilgrimage sites. [20]
Campus worship opportunities [21] including Life of Prayer, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, traditional Catholic processions and Guadalupe Day. Many students participate in perpetual adoration at St. Benedict's Parish on the edge of campus. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is recited weekly. A daily rosary was added at the campus grotto to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Marian apparitions at Fatima. [22] The president leads the rosary weekly in the chapel. [20]
Students are invited to pray the Divine Office with the monks in St. Benedict's Abbey or the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica Monastery. Lectio Divina is also offered at the Mount. [20]
There are several places of prayer on or adjacent to campus: St. Martin's Chapel, St. Benedict's Abbey Church, Outdoor Stations of the Cross, Guadalupe Chapel, and St. Joseph Chapel in the Abbey. Retreats, conferences, and performances that college ministry offers to students includes "Jam for the Lamb,” and BC Koinonia. [20]
The school built Mary's Grotto, located in the center of campus, and Archbishop Joseph Naumann dedicated it in 2009. [23] It is one of three outdoor devotional spaces dedicated to Mary located on the campus. The grotto is the site of the May Crowning "send-off" of student vocations to the priesthood and religious life. [24] The college is located within the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, though it is not operated by the Archdiocese.
In 2014, the school renamed its student union the St. John Paul II Student Center on the day of Canonization of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II. [25]
The main buildings of Benedictine College are in many cases named for important persons in Benedictine College history. [26]
The Benedictine athletic teams are called the Ravens. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) since the 1991–92 academic year. [27] The Ravens previously competed as an NAIA Independent from 1962–63 to 1990–91; in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIC) from 1937–38 to 1961–62; as an Independent from January 1929 (during the 1928–29 school year) to 1936–37; and in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) from 1902–03 to 1927–28.
Benedictine competes in 20 intercollegiate varsity sports. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, lacrosse, soccer, track & field (indoor and outdoor), and wrestling; women's sports include basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, softball, track & field (indoor and outdoor), and volleyball; and co-ed sports include cheerleading, dance, and spirit squad.
Benedictine's cheerleading and spirit squads have been recognized nationally. They also have an athletics band.
The mascot "Rocky the Raven" is associated with St. Benedict, as legend has it a raven would bring the sixth-century saint food during his time as a hermit in the mountains near Subiaco, Italy. The legend also has the raven saving St. Benedict from eating poisoned bread.
Mount St. Mary's University is a private Roman Catholic university in Emmitsburg, Maryland. It has the largest Catholic seminary in the United States. Undergraduate programs are divided between the College of Liberal Arts, the Richard J. Bolte School of Business, and the School of Natural Science and Mathematics. "The Mount" has over 40 undergraduate majors, minors, concentrations, and special programs, as well as bachelor's/master's combinations in partnership with other universities, 8 master's programs, and 6 postgraduate certificate programs.
The University of Mary is a private, Benedictine university near Bismarck, North Dakota that has 3,852 students. It was established in 1959 as Mary College.
The College of St. Scholastica (CSS) is a private Benedictine college in Duluth, Minnesota. Founded in 1912 by a group of pioneering Benedictine Sisters, today St. Scholastica educates almost 4,000 students annually and has graduated more than 29,000 alumni. The college offers a liberal arts education and is located on 186 wooded acres overlooking Lake Superior.
Maur Hill–Mount Academy is a coed Catholic, college prep, boarding high school in Atchison, Kansas. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and sponsored by the St. Benedict's Abbey (monastery) and Mount St. Scholastica (convent) in Atchison, KS. It became Maur Hill–Mount Academy with the merger of the two long established schools: Maur Hill Prep School (1919) was an all-boys school and Mount St. Scholastica Academy (1863), an all-girls school.
The Saint Louis Priory School is a Catholic secondary day school for boys on a 150-acre campus in Creve Coeur, St. Louis County, Missouri, within the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. The school is run by the Benedictine monks of Saint Louis Abbey.
Subiaco is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in the Italian region of Latium, 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Tivoli alongside the River Aniene. It is a tourist and religious resort because of its sacred grotto, in the medieval St. Benedict's Abbey, and its Abbey of Santa Scolastica. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia. The first books to be printed in Italy were produced here in the late 15th century.
Saint Anselm College is a private Benedictine liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Founded in 1889, it is the third-oldest Catholic college in New England. Named after Saint Anselm of Canterbury, the college continues to have a fully functioning and independent Benedictine abbey attached to it, Saint Anselm Abbey. As of 2017, its enrollment was approximately 2,000.
Benedictine University is a private Catholic university in Lisle, Illinois. It was founded in 1887 as St. Procopius College by the Benedictine monks of St. Procopius Abbey in the Pilsen community on the West Side of Chicago. The institution has retained a close relationship with the Benedictine Order, which bears the name of St. Benedict, the acknowledged father of western monasticism.
Mount Angel Abbey is a Catholic monastery of Benedictine monks located in Saint Benedict, Oregon, northeast of Salem, it was established 142 years ago in 1882 from Engelberg Abbey, in Switzerland. The abbey, located on the top of Mount Angel, a 485-foot-high butte (148 m), has its own post office separate from the city of Mt. Angel. As of 2021, the abbey is home to approximately 51 monks.
Mount Mercy University is a private Catholic liberal arts university in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1928.
Belmont Abbey College is a private, Catholic liberal arts college in Belmont, North Carolina. It was founded in 1876 by the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey. The college is affiliated with the Catholic Church and the Order of Saint Benedict. Belmont Abbey is the only college in North Carolina affiliated with the Catholic Church.
Conception Abbey, site of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, is a monastery of the Swiss-American Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation. The monastery, founded by the Swiss Engelberg Abbey in 1873 in northwest Missouri's Nodaway County, was raised to a conventual priory in 1876 and elevated to an abbey in 1881. In 2021 the community numbered fifty-eight monks who celebrate the Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours daily and who staff and administer Conception Seminary College, The Printery House, and the Abbey Guest Center. Monks also serve as parish priests and hospital chaplains in the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph and other dioceses. There is also a large postal facility attached to The Printery House, operated by lay employees, which includes package shipping and delivery facilities.
Saint Scholastica's College, also referred to by its acronym SSC or colloquially St. Scho, is a private Catholic basic and higher education institution for women founded and managed by the Congregation of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing in a 3.66 hectares (36,600 m2) lot in Malate, Manila, Philippines. It was established in 1906 initially offering elementary academic programs. It started admitting high school students in 1907 and opened its collegiate department in 1920. It pioneered in formal music education in the Philippines, opening a Conservatory of Music in 1907.
Benedictine Sisters of Chicago is a Roman Catholic Benedictine congregation of women. It was founded in 1861 by three sisters of the Benedictine congregation of Mount St. Benedict Monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania, who came to Chicago to teach the German-speaking children of St. Joseph's parish. They became an independent congregation in 1872. St. Scholastica's Monastery in Rogers Park, Chicago is the Motherhouse. St. Scholastica Academy was an integral part of the sisters' ministry in Chicago.
Saint Benedict's Monastery is a monastery of the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict, in St. Joseph, Minnesota, United States. The 18th and current prioress of Saint Benedict's Monastery is Sister Karen Rose, OSB who was installed on June 4, 2023.
Louis Mary Fink, O.S.B., was a German-born Benedictine monk and prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the first Bishop of Leavenworth (1877–1904).
The Abbey of Saint Scholastica, also known as Subiaco Abbey, is located just outside the town of Subiaco in the Province of Rome, Region of Lazio, Italy; and is still an active Benedictine abbey, territorial abbey, first founded in the 6th century AD by Saint Benedict of Nursia. It was in one of the Subiaco caves that Benedict made his first hermitage. The monastery today gives its name to the Subiaco Congregation, a grouping of monasteries worldwide that makes up part of the Order of Saint Benedict.
The Benedictine Ravens are the athletic teams that represent Benedictine College, located in Atchison, Kansas, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) since the 1991–92 academic year. The Ravens previously competed as an NAIA Independent from 1962–63 to 1990–91; in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIC) from 1937–38 to 1961–62; as an Independent from January 1929 to 1936–37; and in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) from 1902–03 to 1927–28.
The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica are an education-focused Benedictine religious community in Atchison, Kansas. The monastery founded Mount St.Scholastica College, a women's college which merged with St. Benedict's College in 1971, forming what is now Benedictine College.