MAYNOOTH. – The Irish College of St Patrick (St Patrick’s College) at Maynooth (County Kildare) was founded in 1795 as a direct result of the historical circumstances of the time.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the so-called “Penal Laws” against the Catholic religion were still in force in Ireland, making it impossible to establish diocesan seminaries there. As a consequence, many Irish priests received their training in the “Irish Colleges” opened in various European cities: Rome, Paris, Salamanca, Bordeaux, Louvain. At the time of the French Revolution, these colleges housed some 400 Irish students. When these colleges were closed and their students dispersed owing to the upheavals in Europe at the end of the 18th century, the College of St Patrick at Maynooth (1795) was founded to meet the pressing need of the situation.
The primary purpose of the College was to serve as a seminary for all the dioceses of Ireland, and it enjoyed considerable growth throughout the 19th century; by 1951 the number of resident students exceeded 500. In 1899 the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities erected the Faculties of Theology, Canon Law and Philosophy; their statutes, revised in accordance with the apostolic constitution *Deus Scientiarum Dominus*, were approved by the Holy See in 1935. In 1908 Maynooth became a “recognised college” of the National University of Ireland, which grants the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science to students who pass the examination at the end of their third year. Candidates for the priesthood reside in the College for a period of seven years: three years are devoted mainly to scholastic philosophy, with courses in ancient and modern languages and the physical sciences, and four years to theological studies. After priestly ordination, at the end of the seventh year, many remain for further study to obtain the licentiate and doctorate.
The great majority of students are destined for priestly ministry in the various dioceses of Ireland; yet the courses leading to academic degrees in sacred theology and canon law have been attended, especially in recent years, by many priests from Great Britain, the U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, as well as by religious of various Orders and Congregations and members of missionary societies.
Pius XII, in 1949, was pleased to commend “the noble part which the College of Maynooth has played for more than a century and a half, not only in the formation of excellent priests for the dioceses of Ireland, but also in providing zealous and generous labourers for the distant vineyards of the Lord in the English-speaking lands beyond the sea, and likewise in the mission territories of distant Africa and China.” – See pl. XXXII. Edoardo Kissane