Our Heritage

In 1955, Archbishop Joseph Hurley, the sixth Bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, had a vision for the future of the Catholic Church in Florida. He purchased more than 100 acres west of Boynton Beach, land which would eventually become our seminary.

In 1963, the first Bishop of Miami, Coleman Carroll, established the first Catholic theological seminary south of Washington and east of New Orleans. Entrusted to the Vincentian Fathers for the first eight years of operation, the seminary became an archdiocesan seminary in 1971 under Archbishop Carroll, and it has been a regional seminary since 1981. 

Today, St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary is owned by the seven dioceses of the state of Florida. More than 650 of our alumni have been formed, graduated, and now serve in parishes throughout the state of Florida and Georgia and the Carolinas, as well as a number of dioceses in the Caribbean and  in other parts of the United States.  In this day of urgent need for cultural diversity, St. Vincent’s is the only fully bilingual theological seminary in the United States.

In 2013, our seminary celebrated 50 years of priestly formation.  With rising seminary enrollment and the challenge of aging facilities, St. Vincent’s embarked on a capital campaign. As part of the expansion and renovation, two new dormitories were constructed, and the old facilities were fully modernized.

Our program includes a pre-theology program for students who have completed college and who come to us with no previous college seminary experience. These seminarians are formed as disciples of Jesus Christ as they receive the philosophical and theological preparation they need to start the main course of theological studies. These students normally receive the Master of Arts (Philosophical Studies for Missionary Discipleship) (MAPS) at the completion of two years of study.

The principal program of SVDP is the Master of Divinity (M.Div.), in which seminarians normally spend five years in a holistic formation program, which shapes the identity of a priest: human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral. The seminary’s focus is to form, train, and educate priests who will meet the challenge of fostering and nurturing tomorrow’s Catholic community.

SVDP also helps to prepare permanent deacon candidates for the Archdiocese of Miami and the Diocese of Palm Beach. These students and lay students take part in the Master of Arts (Theological Studies) (MATS) program. Lay students may also apply for the MAPS program.