St. John's University was founded in 1870 by the Vincentian Community, a Catholic community of both priests and brothers who have let Jesus Christ shape their lives in the spirit of their founder Saint Vincent de Paul.

St. Vincent de Paul was a man of great vision. In 16th century France, he was in the forefront of the Counter-Reformation, pioneering new ways of service to the poor and reforming the clergy by offering retreats to current priests and founding seminaries to improve the training of new priests. He was dynamic in motivating people of different classes in France to join together to alleviate suffering; he created religious communities for men and women to, in his words "love God with the strength of your arms and the sweat of your brow." Read a detailed account of the life of Saint Vincent de Paul.

His vision continues today in Vincentian communities worldwide. The Vincentian Family is an international family composed of many groups and organizations around the world that have adapted the mission, spirit and rules of St. Vincent de Paul. There are over 7 million women and men, laity and religious, Catholic and non-Catholics who honor St. Vincent de Paul as their patron. Among the members of the Vincentian Family are the Congregation of the Mission, Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the International Association of Charity, the Association of the Miraculous Medal, the Marian Vincentian Youth, and the Sisters of Charity. They live in many countries and work, pray, and live in community in response to the needs of the poor. Vincentians serve the poor in parishes and social service agencies, work in seminary formation, teach in universities, provide missions in parishes around the world, and work to develop community leaders.

Vincentian higher education in America had its start when a small band of Italian Vincentian (Congregation of the Mission) priests, brothers and seminarians came to the United States in 1816 to accept Bishop Louis DuBourg's invitation to evangelize the settlers in the upper-Louisiana Territories and to found a seminary there. The recently-arrived European Vincentians discovered a need to combine lay education with seminary education in order to serve as an outreach to the nascent Catholic Church in America and to help pay the seminarians' education with the tuition of the lay students.

Later, John Loughlin, the first Bishop of Brooklyn, New York, requested the establishment of a Catholic college in his diocese "where the youth of the city might find the advantages of a solid education and where their minds might receive the moral training necessary to maintain the credit of Catholicity." Thus in 1870 the College of Saint John the Baptist was born. This institution evolved into the modern-day Saint John's University.

Today, Vincentian higher education in America is represented by Niagara University, St. John's University and DePaul University. For the first half of the 20th century these institutions aimed at fulfilling the Vincentian mission of service to the poor by providing the young poor the education needed to break the cycle of poverty. After Vatican II, the Congregation followed the general spirit of change and modernization and charged the universities to become fully Vincentian by aiming at 6 major goals:

• Educating the poor and their children, thereby breaking the vicious cycle of poverty within family units;
• Educating first-generation college students, thereby enabling new immigrant groups and traditionally marginalized populations to enter the mainstream in the United States;
• Presenting the Roman Catholic tradition as an interpretive framework and spiritual support for students= professional and personal lives, while respecting and being enriched by the great religious diversity represented in the university communities;
• Instilling in all students an affective and effective love for those in need;
• Researching poverty in society and looking for creative ways to moderate this social evil;
• Offering the universities' considerable resources to other local, national and international agencies and community groups with complementary goals.

Find out more about Vincentian higher education in America.

Saint John's University believes that higher education is about more than getting a job; it’s about learning how to make a difference in the world. Consequently, St. Johns' curriculum encompasses both academic study and direct experience in helping those less fortunate. One example is their "academic centers of excellence" which emphasize research into the mechanisms of sustainable global development and social justice. In addition, St. John's actively involves students in volunteering, mentoring and service learning programs. Read more about St. John's University's Vincentian heritage.