The Shield of Roses, a group that prays the rosary at an abortion clinic every Saturday morning.

FRONT ROYAL, Va. — Twenty-five years ago, Warren Carroll had one goal in mind when he set out to found a new college: He wanted it to be “100% Catholic.”

With a vocations rate of 15%, three daily Masses, a core curriculum in philosophy and theology and a graduate school that has educated more than a quarter of all religious education directors in the Diocese of Arlington, Va., Christendom may have met his goal.

At the time of Christendom's founding in 1977, the Catholic world was reeling from the Land O'sLakes conference, where Catholic universities formally severed ties with the Church. The word “Christendom” had vanished from the English language, and the social mores of the 1960s dominated the culture.

Then, Christendom had only 26 students. The first classes were held in a small parish in Triangle; now the buildings are sprawled across 100 acres overlooking the Shenandoah River and the population has swelled to more than 350 undergraduates, 180 graduate students and 40 faculty members.

“We had five faculty, one librarian and a part-time cook,” recalled Kristin Burns, one of the original faculty members and today a philosophy professor and acting dean of the graduate school, formed when the Notre Dame Institute merged with Christendom in 1997.

Not everything has changed, she said. Faith and reason are still at the heart of Christendom. “It's really important in Catholic education to train the mind and get students to think well, in a way that coordinates with the faith.”

The school's reputation has also grown — so much that even Rome took note. In a private audience with Pope John Paul II several years ago, the Holy Father leaned over and told Carroll, “You have done a great work for the Church.”

Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde echoed that sentiment in a homily delivered for Christendom's 25th anniversary in September. He called the school “an institute of higher learning that is unabashedly faithful to the Church's magisterium, is committed to reinstating the two millennia of Catholic academic teaching and thought that has been cast aside by many of today's colleges and universities, and is determined to educate and form young men and women to be apostles of the third Christian millennium.”

Christendom has also shown a knack for fostering vocations. More than 70 graduates have entered consecrated life, 11 as priests for the Arlington Diocese. At least 10 more are in seminary, and the president's own daughter, Mary Colleen O'Donnell, joined a cloistered Poor Clare monastery last year.

“In such a pastoral setting, it's a beautiful location, a beautiful spot for prayer, reflection and just to calm down,” President Timothy O'Donnell said of the surroundings. “It leads to deeper reflection upon what God wants you to do.”

He also cited the abundance of spiritual activities as factors. “We have eucharistic adoration, frequent confession, daily Mass — all readily available and strongly encouraged by the faculty,” he said.

But that's not all there is to Christendom. Greg Polley, a 2000 graduate, said, at Christendom, “You build friendships on solid ground, not on parties and fraternities.”

Popular student activities include College Republicans, the Legion of Mary and the Shield of Roses, a group that prays the rosary at an abortion clinic every Saturday morning. As student council president, Polley organized dances on campus and outings to concerts.

Senior Paul Jalsevac experienced the strength of the Christendom community last year when, after a car accident, the doctors listed him as close to death. Within hours the students and faculty had mobilized prayer chains and vigils. In the days that followed, Jalsevac received thousands of cards and e-mails from around the country.

“Through a chain of pretty near miraculous events, I managed to survive,” he said. “That's the power of the Christendom community in prayer.”

Christendom maintains its small-community feel by keeping a 15-to-1 ratio of students to teachers. O'Don-nell came to Christendom as a teacher in 1985. When he was offered the position of president, he accepted only on the condition that he could continue to teach. O'Donnell knows most students by name, conducts exit interviews with all graduating seniors and teaches a freshman history course each fall.

For the future, O'Donnell sees “steady prudential growth.” The student body will likely grow to 450 during the next five years. New dorms and a 39,000-square-foot library will complete the physical campus.

O'Donnell also plans to strengthen the Semester in Rome program, new this school year. Half of Christendom's juniors are spending the fall semester just minutes from St. Peter's, taking core classes in addition to Italian art, architecture and language.

Dana Wind is based in Raleigh, North Carolina.