📍 7625 North High Street, 

Columbus, OH 43235

📞 (614) 885-5585

🌐 Pontifical College Josephinum Website

No. of Students: 79

No. of Majors/Areas of Study: 5

Mandatum: Yes

Daily or Weekly Eucharistic Adoration: Yes

Places Where Students Can Study Abroad: N/A 

Annual Cost of Tuition: $39,665-$45,252 

Typical % of students who receive scholarships and/or typical amount of financial aid: 10% (because most seminarians are sponsored by a diocese)

Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 3:1

Why the Josephinum

The Josephinum is independent of a particular diocese or religious charism, staffed by many religious and diocesan priests. It is national, forming seminarians from religious orders and dioceses across the country, and is the only pontifical seminary in the United States.

The Institution:

• President’s Oath
• Catholic Board
• Catholic Faculty
• Mandatum Required 
• Theologians’ Oath 

Campus Culture:

• Mass and Confession
• Speakers Vetted
• Unobjectionable Clubs
• No Coed Dorms 
• Health Services Okay

From the Seminary:

 “The priests on the faculty of the Pontifical College Josephinum bring to this seminary an integrated vision of priestly formation that understands the pastoral realities of our current times and prepares seminarians to serve people immersed in a postmodern world. We take seriously our role in forming men who will one day serve God and his people as generous and holy priests — men with good hearts who want to be saints and who want to help others to become saints,” says Very Reverend Steven P. Beseau, STD, rector/president. 

As a national seminary not staffed by a particular religious order or diocese, the Josephinum welcomes seminarians from dioceses across the country. Since its founding in 1888, more than 1,900 priests have received their formation at the Josephinum, the only seminary in the United States that has the honor of pontifical status. Seminarians in our College of Liberal Arts are challenged with a fully-integrated seminary formation program. College faculty follow the “Program of Priestly Formation,” offering seminarians philosophical training according to the mind of the Church. The college provides a strong humanities program and a rigorous philosophical curriculum that exceeds most American seminaries’ credit expectations. All four dimensions of priestly formation are integrated and unified in a seamless, consistent manner at the college level. The Josephinum provides a two-year pre-theology program in which seminarians earn either a bachelor of philosophy degree or a completion certificate, thus preparing them to enter a graduate theology program. An undergraduate pre-theology program meets the needs of men who have been out of secondary school for some time and who have limited or no college education. In addition to Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Theology degrees, seminarians in the School of Theology may earn a baccalaureate in sacred theology degree through our affiliation with the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome. The Josephinum was one of the first seminaries in the United States to develop a Hispanic Ministry Program that prepares seminarians for ministry in the Latino community. Native English-speaking theologians are prepared to engage in ministry in Hispanic communities immediately after ordination. The Josephinum’s Youth and Young Adult Ministry Certification Program provides seminarians with the knowledge and tools they will need to enter the vital work of evangelization and catechesis of youth and emerging young adults. The Josephinum’s beautiful 75-acre campus provides an environment conducive to prayer, study, communityand discernment. In addition to classrooms, offices and residence halls, it is home to four chapels, a gymnasium and full-size basketball court, weight training and cardiovascular exercise facilities, a swimming pool, athletic fields, two auditoriums, social gathering spaces, a cemetery, outdoor Stations of the Cross, the Jessing Conference Center and the A.T. Wehrle Memorial Library.