St. Joseph's Seminary

Saint Joseph's College seminary began as a part of Saint Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California, in 1898 where candidates for the Catholic priesthood were educated in a 12–year seminary program. Due to considerable expansion in the early part of the last century, Saint Joseph's College was built and opened as a separate school in 1924 in Mountain View, California. The program included the four years of high school plus the first two years of college education, preparing candidates for admission to the major seminary at St. Patrick's. The college was placed under the direction of the Sulpician Fathers, a society founded in Paris, France, and specially organized for training of aspirants to the priesthood. St. Joseph's grew to become one of the largest college seminaries in the United States. In 1968, St. Joseph's assumed responsibility for the four years of high school and four years of college. The high school program was discontinued in 1980. The Saint Joseph's College seminary became a part of the newly formed Diocese of San Jose in 1981. The seminary buildings were damaged beyond repair by the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17, 1989. Students and faculty relocated to a commercial building in Santa Clara for a while, but the local bishop decided to close the college on June 30, 1991.

Alumni News and Events:

The Monument to St. Joseph’s College has been completed at Rancho San Antonio Park. The plaque was installed on 3/11/2010 and it looks fantastic! (click here for more information)
A dedication has been planned for Friday, September 17, 2010. "Read all about it!!!" in the Summer 2010 edition of our Alumni Association Newsletter, which has just been mailed out. This newsletter is also on-line here at our website. You can click on (and follow) the newsletter tab at the top of this page, or just click here.
An announcement flyer was distributed to everybody at our Alumni Day Reunion Dinner on 4/24/2010. It contains the inscription that was engraved on the brass plaque. If you would like to see and/or print this flyer, then Click here to see this flyer
If you would like to know how to find our school's historical monument, we have created a page of driving directions that will guide you to it. Click here for this pdf printable page

New Photographs have been added to our Photo Gallery. We now have 717 pictures, and these are really a treasure trove of old photographs. (click here) to go into our "Photo Gallery." Recent additions have been sent in by John Flynn (R'63), John Cannon (R'44), Loren Dwyer (R'53) very well annotated, John Gisla and Bill Wall (both R'63) have given us pictures from 1959 and 1960, and Phil Murphy (R'63) - check out his sundown picture.
You will really enjoy these historical Pictures in our gallery.

Alumni Day was held on April 24, 2010. More information and pictures will be posted soon. (click here - 2010) If you want to read about last year's Alumni Day (2009), then (click here - 2009)

The Rhet class of 1960 celebrated its 50 year reunion at this year's Alumni Day. A few class photographs have been posted, and more will follow - (click here)
Because of numerous requests, Father Jerry Kennedy has made his Alumni Day Homily available for us to post here at our internet page. Some people want to experience his thoughts and words again; equally important is that fact that other folks who could not attend this year's Alumni Day can also read Father Jerry's remarkable message. Either click on the Memoirs button at the top of this page, or (click here) to go directly to his homily.

A Brief History of the Alumni Association, by Don Carroll, R'58, was written to commemorate the 25th anniversary of our Association (click here to read this interesting story)

Our Annual Day of Recollection was held on February 27, 2010. This was the thirtenth annual Day of Recollection given for us ex-seminarians, hosted by our Alumni Association. If you want to see a quick history of previous "days" (click here for more information)

For a list of our honored Alumni Of The Year, 2000 through 2009 (click here) To hear about and experience the 2010 awards, come to our Alumni Day on 4/24/2010.

To see a complete list of our current Alumni Board members (click here) or click on the "Message from our president" below.

In Memoriam - A new section at this web site (click here)

A pair of interesting web sites have been created to celebrate the classes of 1957 and 1958. These classes have gathered some fascinating memorabilia from their years at Saint Joseph's College. They can be seen at www.sjc57.com and at www.sjc58.com

Class lists are being added to this web site (Click here) or click on the ALUMNI button at the top left corner of this page.

The Alumni Association Board has written a statement regarding sexual abuse and fairness for priests: (to see this statement, click here)