Divine Word College

Divine Word College is an undergraduate Roman Catholic seminary that educates young men for missionary vocations as priests and brothers in the Society of the Divine Word. The college also offers degree and English as a second language (ESL) programs to other Catholic religious missionaries and those aspiring to Catholic lay ministries.

The Society of the Divine Word (SVD) originally established Divine Word Seminary, a four-year liberal arts college, in 1912 at Techny, Illinois. The Society later purchased property in Epworth, Iowa, in 1931 and established St. Paul’s Mission House, an SVD high school seminary. In 1964, Divine Word College replaced the high school seminary and has since served as the principal site of SVD undergraduate seminary education in the United States. Located near the larger city of Dubuque, the college is set on a campus in the small rural town of Epworth.

Divine Word College offers an education which combines a liberal arts curriculum and a program of "spiritual formation".

During their final semester of undergraduate studies at Divine Word College, young men who choose to continue with the SVD may apply for the Society’s one-year novitiate program at the Chicago Province Headquarters in Techny, Illinois. These men may then apply to profess first vows as members of the Society near the end of the novitiate program and continue with seminary studies at the Chicago Theologate.

Other Divine Word College students include SVDs from foreign countries who are in the ESL program and Catholic religious missionaries from other orders and countries who are earning their degrees or learning English before going on to their missionary work.