The original college at this location, St. Mary's College, was founded in 1848 as an Indian mission. The school is the site of the first cathedral west of the Missouri River and east of the Rockies, the 1851 "log cathedral" of Bishop John Baptist Miège, S.J., Apostolic Vicar of Pope Pius IX known familiarly as "The Bishop East of the Rockies".
(School literature refers to Bishop Miege's cathedral as the first cathedral west of the Mississippi. However, Upper California was part of the Diocese of Sonora, which was established in 1779 by Pius VI and, after 1840 it was under the bishop of Alta and Baja (Upper and Lower) California until the establishment of the Diocese of Monterey in 1850. Further, the Diocese of St Louis, Missouri, was established in 1826 and the cornerstone of the current Basilica laid in 1831 on the western bank of the Mississippi river.)
The 465 acre (1.9 km²) college had been operated by the Jesuit order as a seminary since 1931. It closed in 1968 as the Jesuit order reoriented itself to other commitments, more in keeping with the new challenges of the day.
Read more about this topic: St. Mary's College (Kansas)
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