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Saint Martin's University in Lacey, Wash., is one of 18 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin's was established in 1895 by monks of the Roman Catholic Order of Saint Benedict.
Saint Martin's opened its doors Sept. 11, 1895, for a single student, Angus McDonald, who reportedly traveled by canoe from Shelton, some 25 miles away. He was joined by several more students in the following weeks, but until their arrival, received a full course of high school-level classes as the school’s lone enrollee. As with other 19th century American Benedictine schools, the new College enrolled mostly boys and young men between the ages of 10 and 20. Both boarders and "day scholars" were accepted and taught from a curriculum of preparatory and high school classes, plus classical and commercial college courses. By 1897, 29 grammar and high school students were attending Saint Martin's. College-level courses were added in 1900 to provide the necessary education for candidates planning to enter the Benedictine priesthood. By the mid-1930s, separately accredited high school and college programs were offered for Saint Martin’s all-male student body. Saint Martin's became a four-year, accredited, baccalaureate-granting institution in 1938, with its first graduates receiving degrees in 1940. While the College virtually came to a standstill during World War II, the postwar years saw the enrollment of hundreds of “G.I. Bill” veterans and a growing list of course offerings. Saint Martin’s became coeducational in 1965 and began offering extension programs at nearby Fort Lewis Army Post and McChord Air Force Base in 1972. Saint Martin’s High School was closed in 1974, due to declining enrollment. In the 1980s, Saint Martin’s added graduate programs in education, engineering and counseling psychology to its growing list of undergraduate areas of study. Today, the University offers undergraduate degrees in 21 areas of study and graduate degrees in six. The College became Saint Martin’s University in August 2005 to more accurately reflect the institution’s nature, better fulfill its mission and recognize the wide variety of undergraduate and graduate programs available to students.
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Bearing
the name of Saint Martin’s College from its earliest history until it
became Saint Martin’s University in 2005, Saint Martin’s patron saint is
Saint Martin of Tours, a fourth century
European missionary and later, Bishop of France. The university and that
of its founder, Saint Martin’s Abbey, sits on 300 acres of peaceful
woodlands, meadows and meandering trails. The site was selected in 1893
by Abbot Bernard Locnikar, O.S.B., of Minnesota's Saint John's Abbey,
Saint Martin's Abbey’s mother house. At an April 21, 1894, public
auction, the parcel that would become the Saint Martin’s campus was
purchased for $6,920. Work began on Saint Martin’s first building in
January 1895, and by late summer, a four-story structure housing both
the school and a monastery were completed.