St. Augustine Seminary (Bay St. Louis)

St. Augustine Seminary
Former name	Sacred Heart College
Type	Private
Active	1920–1982
Founder	Matthew Christman
Religious affiliation	Divine Word Missionaries
Location	Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, 39520, United States; 30°19′02″N 89°19′52″W / 30.31721956387°N 89.331133307718°W
Language	English

St. Augustine Seminary, originally named Sacred Heart College, was a Black Catholic seminary run by the Society of the Divine Word in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Founded in 1920 in Greenville at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, it relocated in 1923 was the first seminary intended to educate African Americans for the priesthood.^[1]

Started by Fr Matthew Christman, SVD during the era of Jim Crow and widespread opposition to the idea of Black Catholic priests in the United States, the school educated and ordained many of the first Black priests in the United States.^[2] It eventually integrated as tensions eased somewhat in the Church, and closed for higher studies in 1967. It remained a high school seminary and novitiate house until 1982.

^ Ochs, Stephen J. (1993). Desegregating the altar : the Josephites and the struggle for black priests, 1871–1960. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-1859-1. OCLC 28646434.
^ Ochs, Stephen J. (1993). Desegregating the altar : the Josephites and the struggle for black priests, 1871–1960. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-1859-1. OCLC 28646434.

[:0-1] Ochs, Stephen J. (1993). Desegregating the altar : the Josephites and the struggle for black priests, 1871–1960. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-1859-1. OCLC 28646434.

[:02-2] Ochs, Stephen J. (1993). Desegregating the altar : the Josephites and the struggle for black priests, 1871–1960. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-1859-1. OCLC 28646434.

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