From the Rector

Coat of Arms


From the Rector

Welcome to the new home of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary on the World Wide Web. Our seminary, which is located in Boynton Beach, Florida on the state’s east coast, is owned by the dioceses of the Province of Florida.

Since the seminary’s founding in 1963, nearly 500 priests have earned degrees here and have gone on to serve parishes throughout Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and elsewhere.

Preparing candidates for the priesthood through a human, spiritual, academic and pastoral program is our primary mission at St. Vincent. We also foster a bilingual and multicultural environment in recognition of the growing Hispanic presence in the United States. St. Vincent is the only bilingual and multicultural theologate in the country.

The seminary, a free standing, graduate, professional school of theology, is secondarily committed to providing continuing education fro clergy, religious and laity of all denominations. We encourage qualified, non-seminarian students to enroll in theological courses in pursuit of advanced degrees.

I encourage you to visit this site often as we continuously update its content with news and information of the seminary, the men studying to be the priests of tomorrow and various activities taking place at St. Vincent.

Should your travels bring you to the Boynton Beach area during the academic year, please consider Wednesday Mass at St. Vincent followed by lunch with our seminarians. I also ask that you remember the seminary in your prayers and as you consider charitable giving.

On behalf of our seminarians, our faculty and our staff, thank you for your interest in St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary.

Rev. Msgr. Keith Brennan, J.C.D.
Rector/President

St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary’s Coat of Arms

Every ecclesiastical institution has the “right to bear arms.” However, our seminary never created a coat of arms when it was founded in 1963. Thus, the resident priests of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary recently commissioned the creation of a coat of arms for the seminary in honor of the former Rector/President Msgr. Stephen C. Bosso’s twenty years of dedicated service. Fr. David Toups, the Dean of Students, in conjunction with the new Rector, Msgr. Keith Brennan, headed the project on behalf of the priests of the house.

“We have chosen as the motto, Luke 4:18, the words of Our Lord, and the sentiments of our patron: ‘He has sent me to bring the Good News to the poor’ (Evangelizare Pauperibus Misit Me). This certainly expresses our mission at the seminary;” said Father Toups, “the sending forth of our men to spread the Gospel to all of the people of God, as well as expressing the seminary’s roots of being founded by the Vincentian Fathers.”

The shield of the coat of arms is broken into three sections:

1) The lower field, with a red background presenting the chalice and host, reminds us that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of our lives, so too the Eucharist is the foundation of our crest.

2) The upper left corner of the shield represents the geographical location of our seminary on the Florida peninsula. The two blue columns on either side represent the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, while the royal palm is the symbol of the flora and fauna of our state. The palm is also the early Christian symbol of the victory over suffering and death the martyrs endured, reminding us of the heritage of those who died, even in the State of Florida, in order to lay the foundation upon which we continue to build. The seminarians trained at St. Vincent’s are to be courageous in laying down their lives in imitation of Our Lord.

3) The upper right corner of the shield is the symbol of our beloved St. Vincent de Paul Chapel, which is surrounded by seven stars in the sky. When Florida was discovered, it was through the navigation by the stars, which guided the way in the darkness of night. It is our Lady who continues to guide us to her Divine Son; she is the Stella Maris (Star of the Sea) helping us in the darkness. Mary is represented by the primary star surrounded by the remaining six representing the angels and saints interceding for the work of the seminary. This seminary was built in large part because of the generosity of the members of the Miraculous Medal Association and thus we remember and honor all of our benefactors past and present. There is further significance to the number of stars; the number is representative of the sacraments of our Church, which guide us to Christ, and which the men of the seminary are preparing to minister to the people of God through Holy Orders. The number also represents the seven owning dioceses in the state of Florida, which guide the running of the seminary in the mission of formation: human, spiritual, academic, and pastoral.

Finally, The supporter for the shield is modeled after the “Great Cross” at the Mission of Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine dating back to 1565. This is the site of the first parish in what would become the United States and represents the very foundation of the faith in our country. The Cross is green in color symbolizing the Cross as the “Tree of Life.”