Franciscan School of Theology

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The Franciscan School of Theology is a Franciscan Seminary in Berkeley, California. FST is owned and operated by the Province of Saint Barbara of the Order of Friars Minor. FST is a member school of the Graduate Theological Union, an ecumenical consortium of nine schools. FST is accredited by The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

[edit] History

FST has its origins in the history of California, dating back to the 1600s in the founding of the apostolic colleges in Mexico for the work of education among the native peoples. Mission Santa Barbara was chartered as an apostolic college in 1854 and eventually became the center for theological studies for the Franciscans of the California Province. From 1869 to 1877, Mission Santa Barbara also functioned as a college for lay men. In 1896, Mission Santa Barbara began a four-year high school seminary program. The high school became a separate institution in 1901, and the college department became a separate institution in San Luis Rey, California in 1929. The college department eventually expanded into a four-year accredited liberal arts college.

In 1968, the Franciscans moved their theology school to Berkeley – a thriving hub of scholarship and culture. Today, lay and religious men and women from around the world come to Berkeley to study with FST’s renowned faculty. The goal of the school is to integrate the pastoral and academic dimensions of theological study and to open the doors to a vital, multicultural Christian community in which to reflect on and prepare for ministry.

Today, FST is the only Franciscan seminary/theology school in the United States whose mission is to prepare professional ministers for the Church.

[edit] External links

• Graduate Theological Union
• Franciscan School of Theology
• Association of Franciscan Colleges and Universities

v • d • e Member seminaries of the Graduate Theological Union American Baptist Seminary of the West • Church Divinity School of the Pacific • Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology • Franciscan School of Theology Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley • Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary • Pacific School of Religion • San Francisco Theological Seminary • Starr King School for the Ministry

v • d • e Association of Franciscan Colleges and Universities Alvernia College • Cardinal Stritch University • Felician College • Franciscan University of Steubenville • Franciscan School of Theology • Hilbert College • Lourdes College • Madonna University • Marian College(IN) • Neumann College • Quincy University • Siena College • Silver Lake College • St. Bonaventure University • St. Francis College • Saint Francis University • University of St. Francis(IL) • University of Saint Francis(IN) • Viterbo University