Saint Paul University

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St Paul's main building

Saint Paul University (French: Université Saint-Paul) is a Catholic Pontifical university federated with the University of Ottawa. It is located on Main Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and has been entrusted for more than a century to the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

In 1848, Monsignor Joseph-Bruno Guigues, the first Catholic Bishop of Bytown, established a small college for boys housed in a modest wooden building shadowing the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica. Space soon became an issue, and in 1852, students and professors of the College of Bytown moved to a stone edifice on Sussex Avenue, then known then as the Académie De La Salle. In 1856, the college moved to six lots on Wilbrod Street donated by notary L.-T. Besserer, and was later renamed the University of Ottawa.

Saint Paul University was created in 1965, when the school's original ecclesiastical components were separated from its secular components. For while the Ontario government wished to accommodate the university's Christian identity, it was felt that the creation of a new institution would best suit the specific needs of the city's Catholic community.

Like the University of Ottawa, Saint Paul University is a fully bilingual institution, offering instruction in English and French. The school is comprised of four faculties: Human Sciences, Philosophy, Theology and Canon Law, whose programs in 19 disciplines range from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. Such disciplines include: Anglican Studies, Biblical Studies, Canon Law, Canonical Practice, Conflict Studies, Counselling and Spirituality, Eastern Christian Studies, Ecclesiastical Administration, Ethics, Group Facilitation, First Nations Leadership, Interreligious Dialogue, Ministry, Mission Studies, Pastoral Theology, Philosophical Theology, Philosophy, Public Ethics, Religious Education, Social Communications, Spirituality and Theology.

Saint Paul offers education for both the laity and candidates for ordination in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Churches. The Bachelor of Theology and Master of Pastoral Theology (similar to the Master of Divinity) are the standard ordination-track degrees.