St. Peter's Pontifical Seminary also known as St. Peter's Pontifical Institute of Philosophy and Theology or simply as St. Peter's Pontifical Seminary/Institute is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

major

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

located in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, India. After the

Suppression of the Society of Jesus The suppression of the Society of Jesus was the removal of all members of the Jesuits from most of Western Europe and their respective colonies beginning in 1759 along with the abolition of the order by the Holy See in 1773; the papacy acceded ...

in 1773, the Carnatic, Madura and Mysore Missions were entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions Society. These missionaries started a Seminary under the name ''Grand Seminaire'' in 1778, at Ulgarpet, in the outskirts Pondicherry. Rev. Fr. Busson, a former Jesuit, acted as the first Rector of this Seminary. Fr. Magny took charge after him for 40 years. In 1788 that the first ordination took place. At the end of 40 years of Rectorship, Fr. Magny could count 13 ordained priests among the students. In 1790, the Seminary was transferred to Pondicherry at, what is now Petit Seminaire Higher Secondary School. The Seminary was renamed as ''St. Joseph's Seminary''. In the first 100 years of its existence, 49 indigenous priests were ordained from this seminary. in 1934 the seminary was transferred to Bangalore. Since Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle bore a considerable part of the expenses for the construction of the Seminary building, the new institution was named after St. Peter. In 1942, St. Peter's Seminary was officially declared by the Holy See as a regional seminary. In 1966 Theology Section building and a new chapel was built. In 1962, the Seminary was affiliated to the

Pontifical Urban University The Pontifical Urban University, also called the ''Urbaniana'' after its names in both Latin and Italian, is a pontifical university that was under the authority of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The university's mission is to ...

of RomeSacra Congregatio Pro Institutione Catholica, No. 415/62, dt. 30.06.1962 which raised this seminary to the status of Pontifical Seminary. On 12 December 1968, with the recommendation of Paris Foreign Missions Society, the seminary administration was transferred to the local bishops.

References

External links

Official Website

St Peters Pontifical Institute – A Brief History
Catholic seminaries

Seminaries A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clerg ...

1778 establishments in India {{Karnataka-university-stub