Publisher's Synopsis
In 1818, a small group of Catholic clerics established a religious community in southeastern Missouri and opened a school, grounded in its European Vincentian roots but influenced by the isolation of its rural location. St Marys of the Barrens became the first American institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi River and only the fourth Catholic seminary in the United States. Over the years, St Marys emerged as a significant institution whose early leaders played an important role in the development of the Catholic Church on the American frontier. The schools subsequent history reflected the changing status of the growing American Catholic community. In this history of the Barrens, Rick Janet demonstrates how its story reflects the broader sweep of the American Catholic experience.
