Mount Saint Michael (''known colloquially as "The Mount"'') is a former seminary, school, farm and retreat for the

Jesuit order The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 by ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...

. It was later sold to

Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen The Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (; CMRI) is a sedevacantist Traditionalist Catholic religious congregation. The CMRI is dedicated to promoting the message of Our Lady of Fátima and the devotion of the practice of Total Consecrat ...

(CMRI), a

Sedevacantist Sedevacantism is a traditionalist Catholic movement which holds that since the 1958 death of Pius XII the occupiers of the Holy See are not valid popes due to their espousal of one or more heresies and that, for lack of a valid pope, the See ...

Catholic religious congregation. Sedevacantists are

traditionalist Catholic Traditionalist Catholicism is a movement that emphasizes beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions and presentations of teaching associated with the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). ...

s believe that all pontiffs after

Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

are false popes due to perceived error taught in the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

. It serves as the home of Saint Michael's Academy and as a parish center for Sedevacanists in the Spokane area. It is staffed by the

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

brothers A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingl ...

and

sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen. The main building serves as the

motherhouse A motherhouse or mother house is the principal house or community for a Catholic religious community.YourDictionaryMotherhouse/ref> One example is the Missionaries of Charity's motherhouse in Kolkata, which functions as the congregation's headquart ...

for the sisters. The

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

for the priests and brothers is also located on the property in a separate building. Mount Saint Michael is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

Early history

St. Michael's was founded by Father Joseph Caruana as a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

mission just north of Spokane in the mid-19th century to serve the Native Americans in the area. In 1878, Caruana's successor, Father Joseph Cataldo, moved the mission to its current location with a purchase of almost 1,000 acres (4 km²) of land at the price of $2 per acre. From 1881 until 1915, Mount St. Michael was used primarily as a farm, supplying now-

Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) ( ) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, United States. It is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges ...

with fresh produce and dairy products. In the spring of 1915 construction began on a scholasticate to accommodate the rising number of vocations to the Jesuit order at the cost of $400,000. Father Arthuis, who had just completed

St. Aloysius Gonzaga Aloysius de Gonzaga, SJ (; 9 March 156821 June 1591) was an Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims of a serious epidemic. He was ...

Church at

, was placed in charge of construction. He built a railroad 1100 feet (340 m) in length to convey building materials up the 320 foot (98 m) bluff. The four story Tudor- Gothic building was built in the shape of a "T" and contained a chapel, dining room, kitchen, gymnasium, physics and chemistry labs, lecture halls and residences for the scholastics. In the 1920s, a grotto of

Our Lady of Lourdes Our Lady of Lourdes (; ) is one the Marian devotions, devotional names or titles under which the Catholic Church venerates the Mary, mother of Jesus, Virgin Mary. The name commemorates a series of Lourdes apparitions, 18 apparitions reported by ...

was built by one of the Jesuit brothers in fulfillment of a vow. Mass is offered at the outdoor chapel and faithful often gather here to pray the

Rosary The Rosary (; , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), formally known as the Psalter of Jesus and Mary (Latin: Psalterium Jesu et Mariae), also known as the Dominican Rosary (as distinct from other forms of rosary such as the ...

. In 1929, work began on the three-story west wing. The new wing housed another 100 students and contained the new library. In 1930 a

seismometer A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground displacement and shaking such as caused by quakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The out ...

from Gonzaga University was moved to a basement laboratory at Mount St. Michael, where seismologists kept careful records of seismic activity. Mount St. Michael soon gained international acknowledgement as an important seismographic center. At this time the 700 acre (2.8 km²) farm provided all the food needed for the seminary. Jesuit brothers, farmers, tailors, bakers, cobblers, bee keepers and horticulturists, saw to the material needs of the community and the formation of the candidates placed in their charge. It was said to be one of the finest Jesuit houses of study in the world. In the 1960s the Jesuit order experienced a drastic drop in the number of vocations and Mount St. Michael closed its doors as a scholasticate in 1968. For the next ten years, Mount St. Michael served as a residence for retired Jesuit priests and as an ecumenical prayer and retreat center.

Sedevacantist congregation

In 1977, the Jesuits sold Mount St. Michael to the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen, led by

Francis Schuckardt Francis Konrad Schuckardt (July 10, 1937 – November 5, 2006) was an American Traditionalist Catholic independent bishop. Schuckardt is described by Michael W. Cuneo as "the rock-and-roll outlaw of Catholic traditionalism—the bad influen ...

. Mount St. Michael served as a boys' school, seminary and rectory for the priests and brothers of the Congregation. Schuckardt was not ordained by the

but by American

Old Catholic The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches, or Old Catholic movement, designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the Great C ...

bishop Daniel Quilter Brown. Schuckardt founded a sedevacantist congregation at Mount St. Michael, and eventually declared himself the true Pope, before being ousted by other members of the CMRI, on account of credible allegations of grave immorality. Schuckardt was succeeded by Denis Chicoine, Casimir M. Puskorius, and

Mark Pivarunas Mark Anthony Pivarunas (born 31 October 1958) is an American sedevacantist Traditionalist Catholic bishop and the Superior General of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI). Biography Early life and family Mark Anthony Pivarunas was ...

, who is currently the congregation's Bishop. The Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church was formed under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane by 15 nuns expelled from Mount St. Michael in 2007 for rejecting their former group's Sedevacantist teaching.

Today

Mount St. Michael serves a variety of needs for Spokane area sedevacantist Catholics. The east wing serves as a

cloistered A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a warm souther ...

residence for the religious sisters. The west wing houses church offices, a religious gift shop with traditional Catholic books and religious goods, a library, and Saint Michael's Academy, a

K-12 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the world. ...

school for boys and girls. A chapel located on the second floor serves as the parochial and school church and is used for the solemn celebration of the sacred liturgy in the

Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or ''usus antiquior'' (), Vetus Ordo or the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in ...

Sexual abuse allegations

In September 2002 and January 2003, two lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of "roughly 25 plaintiffs" were filed against former Catholic priest Patrick O'Donnell, not a member of CMRI, also naming the Catholic Diocese of Spokane as a defendant for its failure to protect children from O'Donnell. Two of the plaintiffs, brothers Steve and Terry Barber, allege that O'Donnell molested them at the Mount St. Michael Seminary. O'Donnell has admitted to molesting some, but not all, of the plaintiffs.

References

External links