📍100 E. Wynnewood Road, 

Wynnewood, PA 19096

📞(610) 667-3394

🌐  St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Website

No. of Seminarians: 147

Total No. of Dioceses and Religious Orders Served: 14

Propaedeutic Stage: Yes, college propaedeutic year and pre-theology propaedeutic year

Daily or Weekly Eucharistic Adoration: Yes

Seminarian-to-Faculty Ratio: 7:1

Athletics Division: N/A

Acceptance Rate: Not provided

On-campus-living requirement: Not provided

% of students who live on campus: Not provided

Why St. Charles Borromeo

Led by Bishop Keith J. Chylinski, rector, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary is now in its 193rd year of formation and is one of the largest Catholic seminaries in the U.S. It will be opening the 2024-2025 academic year on a newly constructed campus, very well suited for the demands of the most recent Program for Priestly Formation (6th edition). The seminary is able to provide high quality and well-balanced formation in every stage of the seminarian’s journey. It encompasses a free-standing, fully accredited College Seminary, a two-year Pre-Theology Program, and a Theological Seminary, as well as a School of Theological Studies for Religious and Lay students. Academically, it has a long-standing reputation for its excellence and orthodoxy. What is less known is the strength of its human formation. St. Charles offers a well-integrated approach to the human and spiritual flourishing of the person. It is also praised for its pastoral formation program, which has the seminarians spending one full day a week in a wide variety of pastoral settings ... from parishes to schools, to hospitals, prisons, and outreach to the poor.

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 (N/A)
• Health Services Okay (N/A)

School’s Comments:

Institution: St. Charles Borromeo Seminary is the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The seminary was founded in 1832 by Rev.Francis Patrick Kenrick, third bishop of Philadelphia, at his home on Fifth Street in Center City. There were only five students. After four subsequent moves, St. Charles settled at its present location in Overbrook in 1871. The purchase of the Overbrook property by Archbishop James Wood for $62,000 was criticized in the local newspaper as “Wood’s Folly” because the ground was considered to be located too far into the country to be a practical setting. St. Charles occupies 75 acres of ground and is comprised of 19 buildings measuring 630,000 square feet. The buildings are affectionately referred to as being located on the “upper side” or “lower side” of campus. The original upper side building, sitting on the highest point of the property, was completed in September 1869 with adjacent buildings added later; lower side buildings were completed in 1928. The renovated Ryan Memorial Library opened in 2005. The fine arts collection of more than 400 pieces is distributed throughout the seminary and includes European paintings, original prints and portraits. St. Charles Borromeo Seminary features a college seminary, a theology seminary, a School of Theological Studies and a School of Diaconal Formation. Over the past 150 years, we have been blessed to have hosted many notable figures in our hallowed halls, including: Pope Francis, Pope St. John Paul II, St. Teresa of Calcutta and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Now in our third century of continuous formation, we humbly and gratefully affirm our motto of our seminary: Exiit Qui Seminat, “The Sower Went to out to Sow.” Today, we are proud to be educating and forming future priests for 15 dioceses and religious orders from across the United States and around the world, including the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.