James J. Hill, Methodist and millionaire, president of the Great Northern Railroad and "Gilded Age" philanthropist, honored his devout Irish Catholic wife, Mary Theresa Mehegan Hill, by building and endowing a Catholic seminary, St. Paul Seminary, in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1894. How this extraordinary event came about and its influence, past and present, on the Catholic Church and its people, especially in the upper midwest, is the subject of this informative book. In meticulously researched detail, Christine Athans analyzes the development of the seminary from 1850-2000 within the context of broader national, international and ecclesiastical currents. She offers insights into the growth of the Catholic Church in the U.S. and brings to life the personalities of those who were integral to the growth and development of the seminary. The first published volume on the history of the more than one-hundred-year-old St. Paul Seminary, this work will be of supreme interest to: --religious historians. --seminary educators and seminarians. --university and seminary libraries, alumni of St. Paul Seminary and the University of St. Thomas. --anyone interested in American Catholicism. A real contribution to the history of the American church in the upper midwest and west. -- M.Theresa Moser, RSCJ, Ph.D. It is a fascinating, briskly-written study of the persons and issues that shaped the Archdiocesan Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. -- Francis J. Buckley, S.J. Mary Christine Athans, B.V.M., is Professor of Church History at the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity of the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. She is the author and editor of books and articles on American Catholicism and Jewish-Christian relations. Used Book in Good Condition