St Charles Borromeo Seminary

St Charles Borromeo Seminary (Slovak: Kňazský seminár sv. Karola Boromejského) is the Roman Catholic Major Seminary of the Archdiocese of Košice in Košice, Slovakia.

The Seminary is located on Main street directly in downtown Košice, Slovakia. It has five floors. The first three are the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University in Ružomberok. The seminary is on the fourth and fifth floors of the building, which consists of the St Charles Borromeo Seminary Chapel, the seminarians rooms, Borromeo Magazine editorial office, a meditation room, a small gym, a billiard room, infirmary rooms, and the seminary kitchen.

A number of priests reside in the seminary building who most of them teach on the Faculty of Theology.

During the first two years, the seminarians focus on philosophical studies and the remaining three years focus on theological studies. Between second and third year, the seminarians take a pastoral year lasting one academic school year where they work in an assigned parish. This accounts for a total of 5 years of formation in the seminary, and 2 years of formation outside the seminary (pastoral year, diaconate year). At the end of every academic year, in June, the fifth year seminarians are ordained to the diaconate and serve within the Archdiocese of Košice. The following June, having completed one year of service as deacons, they are ordained to the priesthood.

History

Before the establishment of an independent diocese in 1804, the territory of the current Metropolitan Archdiocese of Košice belonged to the Diocese of Eger. In 1347 the city received privileges from Louis the Great, and made Košice ranked second among all cities in Hungary.

The city was inspired by the Reformation. After a city fire on April 13, 1556 the Dominicans and Franciscans left Košice. The Catholics in Košice were left without priests. During the pontificate of Pope Gregory XIII, the papal diplomat António Possevino SJ stayed and worked in Košice from September to December 1583. It was he that stressed in a letter to Pope Gregory XIII, about the urgent need to set up a seminary in Košice, to form Catholic priests. However, his proposal was not realized at that time.

Kisdyanum Seminary in Košice

Benedikt Kisdy, the bishop of Eger canonically established the University of Košice on February 26, 1657 in Jasov and entrusted it to the care and administration of the Jesuit order. Emperor Leopold I with his Bulla aurea (Golden Bull) confirmed this university on August 7, 1660 in Graz. However, the university's Faculty of Theology could not exist without a seminary. The founding charter for the establishment of the Seminary was issued by Bishop Thomas Pálfy on June 4, 1664 in Košice. St Ladislaus became the patron saint of the seminary, which became known as the Kisdyanum - by his benefactor, Bishop Benedikt Kisdy. The Kisdyanum building was located on 2 Alžbetina Street (now Building Investment and Development Bank). The Kisdyanum adopted the rules and regulations for its seminary formation from the Pázmáneum in Vienna. At the Kisdyanum, the seminarians were formed by Jesuits for the Diocese of Eger and took their courses at the University. There were on average 40 seminarians for the diocese, in addition to many seminarians of various religious orders such as the Jesuits (around 20 seminarians) as well as Franciscans and Premonstratensians. The Kisdyanum Seminary was active alongside the newer seminary in Eger (since 1709), which both formed seminarians to the priesthood for the Diocese of Eger. The Kisdyanum was active until 1760, when the bishop of Eger, František Barkóczy liquidated it, sold the building, and used the funds for the seminary in Eger. The University of Košice existed until 1777, when on August 27, 1777 Maria Theresa issued a decree Ratio Educationis that demanded only one university in the kingdom, and that in Buda.

Creation of the Diocese of Košice and St Charles Borromeo Seminary

The Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, exercising his power as Apostolic Emperor, divided the Diocese of Eger on February 23, 1804, created the dioceses of Košice and Szatmária, and elevated the diocese of Eger to an archdiocese. The Diocese of Košice became suffragan to the Archdiocese of Eger. Pope Pius VII confirmed the splitting of the diocese of Eger on August 9, 1804 in the bull: In Universi gregis Dominica cura. Francis II also demanded, that every diocese in the kingdom is to have its own seminary to form seminarians for its diocese. Consequently, the construction of the new Seminary in Košice began in 1805. Seminarians starting their first year of theology were in Košice by 1809, even though the building was not yet completed. At the beginning of the 1811/12 academic school year, the seminary building was blessed by the first bishop of the Košice Diocese, Msgr. Andrej Szabó † (20 Aug 1804 Appointed - 28 Sep 1819 Died). Out of respect to the first rector Karol Rajner, the seminary was entrusted to the patronage of Saint Charles Borromeo and was named St Charles Borromeo Seminary (Slovak: Kňazský seminár sv. Karola Boromejského). It was also this academic school year that for the first time had a complete seminary - seminarians in all grades.

Rectors since 1811

Since its birth in 1811, the St Charles Borromeo Seminary has had 26 rectors in total. From 1811 to 1950 there have been 22 rectors:

On July 12, 1950 the Seminary was liquidated by the communist regime which lasted for 44 years. The Seminary was renewed by Mons. Alojz Tkáč in 1994.

• Msgr. Anton Konečný (March 31, 1994 - June 30, 2003)
• Msgr. Jozef Ondovčák (July 1, 2003 - June 30, 2008)
• František Katriňák (July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2013)
• Štefan Novotný (July 1, 2013 – present)

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of the Seminary in Košice is divided vertically. The left part depicts half of the coat of arms of the Košice archdiocese to whom the seminary belongs. The right part depicts the attributes of the patron saint of the seminary - St Charles Borromeo.

The Archdiocese of Košice coat of arms is a gold St Andrew's cross on a blue background. St Andrew the Apostle is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Košice. The upper part has a golden lily, which symbolizes Košice and the other three gold roses symbolize the three arch-deaneries: Abov - cathedral, Šariš and Zemplín.

The attributes of St Charles Borromeo are a silver cardinal's hat on a red background, which symbolizes the cardinalate.

Top-center of the coat of arms is the Book of the Gospels with the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, symbolizing Jesus Christ. An open book of the Gospels is also a symbol for seminaries.

Combining these themes gave birth to the coat of arms of the seminary.

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)