Mission

Preparing Men and Women to Engage the World

“Listen.” Thus began Saint Benedict’s famous Rule. Today, nearly 1500 years later, his simple insight that spiritual and intellectual growth begin with an open heart continues to inspire his readers and inform what we do. Truly, Saint John’s is a place for opening the Word of God, seeing Christ in others, and taking on new experiences and challenges.

And while there is a rare and palpable rhythm to life on campus involving daily prayer, life in community, and hospitality, Saint John’s is not a place to retreat from the world, but rather a place that prepares men and women to engage the world.

Mission Statement

Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, rooted in the Roman Catholic and Benedictine tradition, educates men and women for ordained and lay ministry in the Church.

As a community of faith and hope, we, the faculty, staff, and students of Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, worship God and celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As an academic community relying on the wisdom of the same Holy Spirit, we root ourselves in the Christian tradition, and interpret that legacy in light of the Roman Catholic and Benedictine heritage passed on to us by Saint John’s Abbey with its rich theological, liturgical and ecumenical history.

We commit ourselves to academic, spiritual, pastoral, and professional formation so we might serve the Church in lay and ordained ministry and thus use our diverse gifts for the transformation of our world.

We dedicate ourselves to a life-long pursuit of wisdom so we might progress in Christian faith and “run on the paths of God’s commandments, our hearts expanding with the inexpressible delight of love” (Prologue, RB).