Sulpician Archives photograph collection

In 1789, Pope Pius VI established Baltimore as the seat of the first diocese in the United States, appointing Fr. John Carroll of Upper Marlboro, Maryland as its first bishop. Until 1846, Baltimore was the nation’s only archidiocese, and was, accordingly, the site of synods and councils of national significance in the establishment of guidelines for practice of the Catholic faith in America during the period 1791-1886. Three plenary councils were held in Baltimore (1852, 1866, and 1884), the last of which was presided over by Archbishop Gibbons.

The 9th Archbishop of the Baltimore See, James Gibbons was born in Baltimore in 1834, to parents Thomas and Bridget (Walsh) Gibbons, emigrants from Ireland. James Gibbons attended Saint Charles College in Ellicott City, then St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, becoming ordained as a priest in 1861. After an active and itinerant early career (serving parishes in Baltimore and as chaplain at Fort McHenry, secretary to Archbishop Spalding, Bishop of the Vicariate of North Carolina, prelate to the First Vatican Council in Rome, Bishop of Richmond, Virginia, co-adjutor archbishop of Baltimore), he succeeded Archbishop Bayley in 1877 as Archbishop of the Baltimore See, becoming its first cardinal in 1886.

The Society of Saint Sulpice originated in Paris, France, founded in 1642 by Father Jean Jacques Olier as an order of secular priests charged with training young men for the priesthood as well as missionary work. A seminary established by the Society took its name from the Paris parish of Saint Sulpice, becoming a model for seminaries around the world. To preserve the Society during the French Revolution in the face of attacks on the Catholic Church, clergy were moved to North America, and a group of Sulpician priests sent to Baltimore, the recently established episcopal see headed by Bishop John Carroll. Shortly after his appointment to the Bishopry in 1789, Carroll arranged with the Sulpician Fathers to establish an ecclesiastical seminary in Baltimore, to be funded by the Sulpicians; soon after, a site was purchased at the "One Mile Tavern" (Paca Street and Pennsylvania Ave.) along with four acres of land, and Saint Mary's Seminary was opened in July 1791. The first seminary in the United States, it was an extension of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris, and was headed by Frenchman Father Charles Nagot and several of his associates.

With financial difficulties stemming from low numbers of students threatening the survival of the seminary in Baltimore, the preparation of young men for seminary study became an issue. Starting in 1803, the Sulpicians operated St. Mary’s College in Baltimore, geared to preparatory study for seminary, but providing a European-style education to boys of all faiths. After the college closed in 1852, the gap in pre-seminary education was filled by Saint Charles College, created in 1830 on land in Howard County donated to the Sulpicians by Charles Carroll, although financial difficulties forced delay of its opening until 1848. Saint Charles College remained at its original site in Ellicott City until destroyed by fire in 1911, after which it was located at Maiden Choice Lane in Catonsville (Baltimore County), until closing in 1969.