What’s in a Name? The Catholic identity of Saint Michael’s College

One of the earliest photos of Edmundites at Winooski Park (1903).

Saint Michael’s College was established as a Catholic college in 1904.  Ever since, the College has operated as a Catholic institution of higher education in Vermont, and this has been the consistent identity of the College since its founding.  However, what it means for Saint Michael’s to be Catholic has changed over time.  This is the story I want to convey in today’s blog and those that follow.

The origin of Saint Michael’s College is found in a 1903 request of Bishop Michaud, bishop of the Diocese of Burlington, that the Society of Saint Edmund institute a Catholic college in Vermont.  Edmundites who had fled to the United States from France, where the Society of Saint Edmund had its beginning, were already well suited to the task because of their involvement in French higher education and the Catholic intellectual tradition of Europe.  The Society of Saint Edmund was quick to respond to the request and in 1904 established Saint Michael’s College as the only Catholic institution of higher education in Vermont.

Known originally as Saint Michael’s Institute, the school comprised 34 students, aged 10 to 22.  The College offered a program of study typically offered in France, a collège providing students at the middle school level with an education.  By 1911, the College had transitioned to an American style of higher education, eliminating in the process the education of students below college age.  Accordingly, the revised Vermont charter of Saint Michael’s College stated, “Saint Michael’s College, founded in 1903 by the society of Saint Edmund and conducted under its auspices and chartered by special enactment of the Vermont assembly in 1913, is a Catholic nonprofit corporation of higher learning in the liberal arts tradition, established to further the education of youth and adults without regard to race, creed, sex or national origin.”  Through this act of the Vermont state legislature, Saint Michael’s College became the first Catholic institution in Vermont that was enabled to grant both BA and BS degrees.

Dr. Paul Reiss,
15th President of Saint Michael’s College

This original mission of educating students in a Catholic institution of higher education continues to this day.  This commitment to providing students with a Catholic education is now stated in the mission statement of the College, “The mission of Saint Michael’s College is to contribute through higher education to the advancement of human culture and the enhancement of the human person in the light of the Catholic faith.” Dr. Paul Reiss, the fourteenth president of Saint Michael’s College, writing about the College in In the Light:  Saint Michael’s College in the Light of the Catholic Faith (2005) at the time of the College’s centenary, noted how the College adapted to American social and cultural changes since its founding.  Dr. Reiss also observed, however, “While the Catholic faith itself remained essentially the same, the implications of the faith for the manner in which the college would fulfill its mission has changed and developed over the past hundred years.”

The question then is this:  What does it mean at this time for Saint Michael’s College to be Catholic?  My reply to this question is the topic of the next blog.  Any comments you would like to make at this time can be addressed to me at dtheroux@smcvt.edu.  Let’s talk.