All About St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary
by Sharon Curran Wright
Springtime procession to ask God for the blessing of the fields.
A smooth driveway winds through woods and leads to a large, open space high on a hill in western Buckingham County near Dillwyn. From here a broad view of the surrounding mountains and forests inspires a sense of quiet and calm, conducive to a life of prayer and study at the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary.
A Catholic seminary is a specialized college that forms Catholic priests who will be dedicated completely to the service of Jesus Christ and His Church. As a house of studies of the Society of St. Pius X, the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary draws from the 2,000 year history of the Catholic Church and its traditions. The seminarians focus on the Christian philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, who lived in the Middle Ages in Italy but whose teachings have had great influence on Western thought. Though there are more than 180 Catholic Seminaries in the United States, this is the only seminary of their congregation in North America.
Previously located in Winona, Minnesota, the seminary had outgrown the old facility, but another building that suited their needs couldn’t be found. The organization received a donation of land in Buckingham and bought adjacent tracts in 2011 to total about 1100 acres. They found the natural beauty of the area and its weather to be welcoming toward their goals of some measure of self-sufficiency and their life of prayer. Finding a new home in the state that was so important to our country’s foundation serves to unite their love of God with their love of country.
The new building is made of red brick and slate with the intention that it will last for centuries in the Old World tradition. The goal was to design a place in which the beauty, silence, simplicity, permanence, and stability of the architecture would complement the spiritual formation of the seminarians. During construction the seminarians worked in rotational crews, especially on the tile work. Over ten miles of trim and millwork were all made in their own workshop.
The Liturgical Ceremony for Holy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter): the consecration of the holy oils by the bishop.
The 120,000 square foot building can house up to 120 students plus staff, faculty, and guests and includes a laundry, classrooms, bedrooms, offices, an exercise room, and a barbershop. The courtyard is a place for quiet reading and contemplation, and its lovely pool of water functions as part of the fire suppression system. Dark wood furniture and trim, arch supports in the hallways, and arched windows provide a consistent theme of tradition and permanence to the architecture. Plans for the future include a convent and chapel for the sisters of the order as well as a vineyard, large vegetable garden, and orchard. Fundraising for a full church will begin in a few years; the church building will extend eastward from the front plaza where the bells are located and will join the administration building with the seminary proper. Eventually, there may also be a retreat center.
The Seminary is a house of higher education as well as prayer. The Seminarians have up to four classes per day.
Today, the seminary hosts 108 young men from seven different countries. These are those who have felt the call of the Lord to serve and who applied with a letter of recommendation from their local priest. There are seven brothers and six sisters in addition to ten professors, of which nine are priests and one a lay man. Seminarians are all on “work-study,” so there are only five full-time employees; the rest of the work is done by the brothers and the seminarians, including janitorial duties, kitchen work, and grounds maintenance. Students pay a small tuition, and private donations also support the seminary.
A very strict schedule of prayer, study, and work begins at 6 a.m. There is silence for much of the day as a necessary condition for learning; silence makes one receptive to intellectual formation. The community acts as a family of people who pray, eat, work, and recreate together. Three classes every morning may include theology, philosophy, history, Latin, scripture, apologetics, dogma, and canon law. Daily Mass is delivered and two services are held on Sunday. Worship is conducted in Latin as a demonstration of unity with the faith since the time of the apostles and of unity with all believers throughout the world because the Latin Mass is the same in every country.
The Seminary students and faculty at the beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year. The priests/professors are seated in the front row. Only after the first year-and-a-half of their studies do the Seminarians receive the black cassock.
St. Thomas Aquinas supports local businesses whenever possible and draws about 1000 visitors every year into the county to attend the various ordination ceremonies. Several families have moved from out of state to be near the seminary, and one even brought their family business with them. The seminary has been very involved with the Buckingham Anti-Litter Task Force and won first place in both of the anti-litter drives in 2021 for the most trash collected. One of the brothers sits on the BATF Board of Directors. The seminary is also actively involved with the Buckingham Chamber of Commerce; one of the brothers is vice-president of the Chamber. In the future, they hope to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, and they plan to contribute to local blood drives.
While the recently constructed building is reminiscent of a medieval castle, the seminarians do not intend to be outsiders to the community. Services are open to the public. An Open House is planned for May 14, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. during which a free lunch will be offered along with a tour of the chapel, building, and grounds. If you plan to attend, please inform them ahead of time at webmaster@stas.org. Daily Mass is at 7:15 a.m. and on Sundays at 7:20 a.m. and 10 a.m. Vespers, which is chanting of the Psalms, occurs at 5 p.m.
Seminarians say that Virginia has been very welcoming, and they would like to return the favor. When you spot a brother in black robes walking through town, don’t be shy; they would like to engage as friendly neighbors here in Buckingham.
A computer-generated rendering of the proposed church for St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary. Currently a large conference room serves as the place of worship. The new church will tie into the current building. On the right half of the picture is the current East wing of the main cloister. Fundraising and construction are expected to begin in about 5-7 years.