Historic St. Mary’s Seminary Chapel & Mother Seton House
First Catholic Seminary in United States

St. Mary's Chapel, ca. 1920

The strength of Old West Baltimore’s community-based fabric springs from the practice of faith.

In 1791, at the invitation of Bishop John Carroll — the first American bishop — Sulpician priests came to Baltimore from France to found St. Mary’s Seminary, the nation’s first Catholic seminary.

The Sulpician Fathers built the first significant church in the U.S. in the neo-gothic style, designed by the French émigré Maximillian Godefroy and completed in 1808. In the early 19th century, the crypt of the chapel served as the parish church for area residents, including many Haitian refugees.

The site is closely associated with heroic women: In the 1820s Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first religious community of African American women in the U.S. They used the Chapel basement to provide parochial education for black children.

Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin, founder of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, was also one of the founding members of the Oblates of Providence. The daughter of a Haitian refugee, Mother Duchemin was born in Baltimore in 1810. Her great-grandfather, Maxis, whose name she used, was a slave in Haiti. Theresa was raised by her mother’s guardians, the Duchemin family, who provided education for her as they had for her mother.

Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821), the first native-born American Saint, took her vows in St. Mary’s Seminary Chapel on March 25, 1809. The Chapel is adjacent to the Mother Seton House where she lived while in Baltimore.

St. Mary’s Seminary and University are now located in the Roland Park section of Baltimore. The historic sites are now part of the St. Mary’s Spiritual Center.

600 N. Paca Street, Baltimore, MD 21201